


Celestial Chronicle

by Atalan



Category: Original Work
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M, Magical Boys, Magical Girls, Reincarnation, Romance, Superheroes, messing about with gender expectations, totally not sailor moon with the serial numbers filed off
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-16
Updated: 2016-08-06
Packaged: 2018-04-09 16:37:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 83,995
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4356476
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Atalan/pseuds/Atalan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Akemi always wanted to be a magical girl - or something - but it's turning out to be... less fun than she might have hoped. On the other hand, it never occurred to Shoichi that someone might try to put him in a skirt and expect him to take orders from a talking tree. Between them, they're supposed to be fighting the Infernal Multitude, collecting shards, finding the rest of the Celestial Guard, and passing their entrance exams for university. All of which would be complicated enough without throwing the enigmatic Kestrel - friend? foe? quite into Shoichi? - into the mix...</p><p>Official website (now with character illustrations!) at <a href="http://celestial-chronicle.brightwanderer.net/">celestial-chronicle.brightwanderer.net</a>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Spark

**Author's Note:**

> This is the "full" version of the story I was messing around with in "Circles in the Sands of Time", but with a lot of changes as I gradually hammered it into something that made sense. Also, some deconstruction of magical girls. Because I love magical girls. Main pairing is m/m, other pairings include f/f and f/m. As usual with me, it will take a while to get there for most of them.
> 
> At some point in the future I may decide to try collecting this into volumes and self-publishing it. If I do, I will need to take this copy down from AO3 first, so just be aware of that. I will warn if that's going to happen.

Following a mysterious albino cat down a tangled forest path was supposed to lead to adventure in a magical kingdom, not getting stuck halfway up a tree and losing a shoe. It would be less embarrassing if Hana wasn't laughing quite so hard.

"This was your idea," said Akemi, leaning over to see where her shoe had ended up. "So how come I'm the one in the tree?"

"You're always the one in the tree," Hana managed between giggles. "'Cos you're better at it and I'm scared of heights."

"This doesn't count as a height." Akemi was barely two metres off the ground, though it had taken a lot of effort to get there through the tree's dense branches. "Can you find my shoe?"

Hana began scuffling around in the bushes, still laughing. At the edge of the small clearing, the albino cat was watching them with suspicion, punctuated by the occasional warning growl. Close up, it was less 'mysterious' and more 'hostile and mangy'. Its utterly non-mysterious tabby kitten mewed pitifully from the branch where it had become stuck, still some way above Akemi's head.

"Maybe she didn't need our help at all," Hana was saying as she searched. "Maybe she was just going to go rescue him and now we're in the way."

"You couldn't have said that before I got up here?"

"Oh, here's your shoe! No, wait, this is someone else's. It's got moss on it, ew! Why would there be more than one shoe here?"

"It's a shoe-eating tree, obviously. Tricks people into climbing it and then steals their shoes."

"Okay, this one's definitely yours."

Hana passed the shoe up to Akemi, who checked it for moss (just in case) before putting it on. Then she resumed the slow climb upwards, weaving her way through the thinner branches and testing her weight on the bigger ones before moving.

The kitten hissed at her.

"It's going to scratch you," Hana said. She sounded less concerned than Akemi felt was strictly fair. "Just so you know."

"Thanks..."

She was almost within reach of the kitten, but paused to assess the best way to grab it. Unfortunately it was facing her, which meant that teeth and claws were both ready to take on her hand. There wasn't any good way to get around behind it, though, so Akemi attempted to distract it by rustling the leaves over to one side and then, when its head whipped round, made to grab it around the middle...

The kitten sank its teeth into her hand before falling sideways off the branch.

"Oh no, kitty, don't--!" Hana shouted, but the kitten had already hit the ground - feet first, to no apparent harm. It spun in a frenzied circle, hissed at Hana, spotted its mother, and ran towards her. Both cats vanished into the bushes before Akemi even had time to say, "Ow!"

"Are you okay?" asked Hana. She was still fighting giggles, but at least she sounded like she meant it. "Are you going to need stitches?"

"Hardly." The kitten's small teeth hadn't even broken the skin. "Great, now I have to get down..."

"You could just jump. It's not that far."

"Too many branches in the way." Akemi started edging back down the way she'd come. "At least it should be quicker getting down than it was getting up..."

A glint of something caught her eye and she paused. Now she was facing the trunk of the tree, she could see a little hollow where two branches came out and curved straight upward, and something in the hollow was shiny enough to catch the light of the setting sun even within the dim enclosure of the tree's leaves.

"Hang on," she said. "There's some sort of--" she laughed to herself, remembering the conversation leading up to their diversion into the woods. "-- _mysterious glittering object_ up here."

"Ooh!" Hana circled around, trying to see it from the ground. "What is it? What is it? Magic ring? Magic wand?" She paused thoughtfully. "Magic piece of gum wrapper?"

"I can't see from here, wait a sec..."

Akemi stood up on the branch, balancing so she could reach as far as her arm would go. She could just get her fingers over the edge of the hollow. She hoped there wasn't anything nasty in there. Just as she got a grip on something metallic, her foot slipped... and she discovered that it was, indeed, quicker going down than getting up.

"Oh my gosh are you okay?" This time Hana wasn't laughing as she rushed over to where Akemi had landed. "Akemi?"

"Owww..."

"Is anything broken?" Hana knelt beside her and started prodding her arms and legs. "Can you sit up?"

"Yes--"

"Yes you've broken something or yes you can sit up?"

"No-- I mean, yes-- I mean--" Akemi rolled her eyes and sat up, hopefully ending the confusion. "Nothing's broken," she added, just to be safe. She hadn't hit her head or anything, but her arms were scratched up and she was going to have an enormous bruise on her hip. "Ow." Then she brightened, bringing her hand up to show Hana. "But I got it!"

"What is it? A watch?" Hana leaned in to look at the disk of metal, almost completely darkened with age and dirt, lying in Akemi's palm. The only shiny part was a bit of orange glass in the centre. "It looks like an old pocket watch on a chain." She lifted a short length of broken links on one fingertip. "The chain's broken."

Akemi turned the disc over, looking for a catch that would open it, but if there was one, it was jammed shut and hidden under the dirt. She tried rubbing the grime off the surface, but she mostly just left smears on the metal and turned her fingertips black.

"It needs a good clean, whatever it is. Think I'll get three wishes if I polish it hard enough?"

"Or give you the power of time travel." Hana took the disc and held it up in a patch of fading sunlight. The glass glittered in the way that had caught Akemi's attention originally. "It's too thin to be a watch, I think. There's no room for the gears."

"It's probably just a really fancy button. Or a charm off someone's school bag." Akemi grinned. "Maybe if we were in Tokyo... but that stuff never happens in Osaka."

"Yeah, probably." Hana offered her the disk with a smile. "But if it does something cool, we're coming back to find me one too."

Akemi laughed, and put the disc in her bag, and they followed the twisting path back through the dense trees until they reached the less neglected part of the shrine grounds. Out in what was left of the daylight, the state of Akemi's hair and clothes made them decide to skip their usual after-school stop for milkshakes, and go straight back to Hana's house, where they'd do what they could to repair the damage before Akemi had to head home to face the music.

Behind them, in the now-empty clearing, the albino cat reappeared from the bushes and went sniffing around the base of the tree to see if they'd dropped anything edible. The leaves rustled as if in a breeze, although there was no air stirring anywhere else, and a few of the branches settled into more comfortable positions.

The tree said, "She climbed me."

The cat hissed at the voice from nowhere, and bolted back to the bushes with her tail puffed out to twice its normal size.

"She actually _climbed_ me. How undignified." A pause, then laughter like bamboo chimes on the breeze. "Oh well, it's a start."

* * *

They were too old to really believe in time travel or wishes, but Akemi still hoped, as she tried to clean up the disc after dinner, that it would do _something_ , even if that was just open up to reveal a watch face. Ordinary soap and water turned a pile of paper towels black and barely transformed the metal to a dull bronze-ish. The face was engraved with patterns around the glass in the centre, but Akemi couldn't get it clean enough to make them out. A search of her mother's cleaning supplies turned up some silver polish, but Akemi didn't know what the metal was, and she didn't want to risk damaging it.

There was that little antiques store by the station. Maybe someone there could help. 

Or they'd tell her it was just junk.

With a sigh, she folded the disk up in a wad of tissue and put it back in her bag, then pulled out her homework. It would have been nice if the disk had, say, whisked her away to a land where homework didn't exist. They'd always hoped for something like that, she and Hana, ever since they started junior high together. When they were twelve they actually kind of meant it, and when they were fifteen it was their private joke, and now they were seventeen and staring down the barrel of their last year in high school and... they did silly things like chasing a cat into the depths of an empty shrine in case it led them on an adventure, and it was still their joke, but sometimes... Akemi felt a kind of desperation in it. Everything was about school now, studying and revising and working to pass the entrance exams. The only club they had time for was track, and Akemi had to argue with her mother about that every time her grades slipped even a little.

She felt like she was being stripped away until there was nothing left of her except memorised facts and orderly equations. Everyone kept saying it was only until she got into university, only another year, but sometimes, she wondered if there was going to be any 'Akemi' left by then, or if she would forget how to do anything else except try her hardest and never quite be good enough.

* * *

"I think that guy might be following us," Hana said quietly. There was none of the joking, maybe-this-is-an-adventure tone in her voice. "Walk faster."

Akemi automatically turned to look behind them, but couldn't immediately see anyone. Hana yanked her back to face forward and linked their arms so Akemi had to match her pace. It was after sundown, but the road from school to the station was well-lit, and none of the students had ever had any problems coming home this way.

"What guy?"

"He's weird-looking."

Akemi tried to surreptitiously glance over her shoulder. She caught a glimpse of someone walking behind them, matching their pace but hanging just far enough back that whenever they entered a pool of light from the street lamps, he would be in the shadows.

"Weird-looking how exactly?"

"I don't know! His clothes don't look right."

"What's that supposed to--"

"Look, just trust me!"

They were coming up on Kawamachi junction, where there would be more people and plenty of well-lit cafes and shops to go into. Even if a weird guy _was_ following them, he'd have to give up then. There couldn't really be any danger. But Hana sounded _scared_ , and that was not okay. That was not okay with Akemi at all.

She pulled away from Hana and turned right around, feet planted squarely apart, and shouted, "Hey! Hey you! What do you think you're doing?"

She'd caught him by surprise, which meant she caught him in the light. Hana was right: his clothes _didn't_ look right, but it was really hard to say exactly why not. They just seemed to be the standard salaryman's suit and tie, but there was something… _artificial_ about them. They had creases and folds and seemed to hang on him like cloth, but when he moved, they didn't move the way they should. It was like he was an action figure with the clothes molded on as part of him, Akemi thought - all the textures and details were right for when he was standing still, but if you lifted an arm the folds in the sleeve didn't change…

Other than that he looked utterly bland, a normal face with normal haircut and eyes that… Akemi couldn't quite see. Somehow they were shadowed, even though the light was shining right on his face.

The guy backed up abruptly into the shadowy space behind the light. He didn't say anything at all. Hana was a step behind Akemi. She'd gasped when Akemi turned and shouted; now she seemed frozen in place. And now _Akemi_ was scared, which only made her angrier. 

Akemi strode forward. "Hey! I'm talking to you!"

"Akemi--!"

Her eyes took a second to adjust as she moved into the darker spot, and then… he wasn't there. Akemi stopped dead, quickly scanning the street. There were no alleys he could have gone into, only a high wall to their left and the road to the right. He hadn't run off up the hill again. She'd be able to see him. He was just… gone.

A prickling sensation ran up her spine. She had a strong sense of deja vu, like hadn't she _dreamed_ this, right before she woke up this morning?

"Where did he--"

"Ran off, the creep," said Akemi. She grabbed Hana's hand and began to run. "Let's get out of here!"

Hana was the only person in their class who could keep up with Akemi at full speed. She switched into sprint mode without hesitation, and the two of them flew down the last few metres of the hill and around the corner onto Kawamachi-dori and into the crowds.

After a few seconds of trying to dodge through the mass of people going into and out of the station, they were forced to slow back down to a walk. Akemi looked behind them, but could see no sign of the creepy guy. She felt kind of stupid now. What, his _clothes_ were weird? And she freaked out? He probably ran off as soon as she started shouting, too shocked by her rudeness to even defend himself…

Hana was looking backwards too. They caught each other's eyes, and then Hana was laughing, only a little bit of fear left in her eyes now.

"Akemi! I can't believe you _did_ that! How _embarrassing_!"

"Well, he shouldn't have been creeping up behind schoolgirls in the dark! Who does that? And what was with his clothes?"

"Oh, maybe he was homeless… or sleeping in the office… they were all creased wrong, weren't they?" Hana pressed a hand against her heart and giggled. "Oh, the poor man."

"Hey, you were the one saying he was weird-looking--!"

It was easy to laugh it off and get the next train home. Easy to forget almost everything, push the odd details into the back of her mind, bury it under a layer of mortification for yelling at some random guy in the street.

Almost everything, except his eyes…

In the shadows between the lights, the Spectre unfolded itself from the darkness and resumed its best attempt at emulating human form. The red-haired girl's sudden attempt to confront it had taken it by surprise, but it wasn't concerned that it had lost them. It was only a scout, after all. Its task was to seek out the bright ones. Its masters would follow the trail of energy to the source, once it had brought them the taste.

* * *

Akemi hadn't had a nightmare in a long time. Oh, she'd had the kind of bad dream where she'd forgotten to study for a test, or her mother was shouting at her for something she hadn't done, or her teeth kept falling out (that was a weird one, but Hana said she had it too sometimes), but… this was a nightmare, a real nightmare, a thing of remorseless black terror.

She was running towards Hana's house from the station, but she kept getting turned around. There was water around her ankles. She could feel the tug of the current. Had she fallen into the rain gutter? But this water stank of mud and brine, and it was choppy and full of debris. She turned another corner and found she was going the wrong way again.

The water was up to her knees. She lost her balance, and heard herself cry out in fear, because falling in would be unthinkable - but her flailing hand caught hold of something. It was a tree branch, and she quickly pulled herself up into the tree, climbing the branches to a safe height. The water was still rising, and now it was below her, it seemed as if it had suddenly become much deeper… as though she was leaning out over a great ocean. Somewhere deep beneath the rushing, tumbling green she saw a light, golden and blazing even through the weight of water above it… until it faltered, and went out.

She heard a bird shriek overheard, the piercing cry of a hawk, but when she looked up she was staring at the kitten she'd tried to rescue. This time if it fell, it would drown. She began to climb, but every time she looked down to find a handhold, she found the kitten seemed just as far away when she looked back up. And there was something wrong about it, about the way its fur stuck out and the way its eyes were in shadow…

"You are awakening," said a voice like the wind through leaves. "They will sense that. You are in danger. Come to me."

Akemi tried to speak, but her voice wouldn't work. She reached for another branch to pull herself up, and the kitten swiped at her, but now its claws were lethally sharp, ready to kill, and she had to throw herself backwards to escape.

There were no more branches behind her. She fell, and the water boiled up to meet her, and she _screamed_ \--

\-- and woke up with a gasp, too scared to move, the feeling of the scream in her throat. But there was no sound from the rest of the apartment, no indication she had made any real noise. Akemi reached shakily for the light and turned it on. It was only five in the morning. She was too old to go and knock on her mother's door. And it was only a dream.

It was raining a little outside. That was probably where the water theme had come from. The tree and the kitten were memories… just things in her brain, getting mixed up together. She should just turn the light off and go back to sleep. It was only a dream, and she wasn't scared of anything, not heights, not spiders, not weird guys with no eyes…

She left the light on.

* * *

Akemi couldn't get the dream out of her head all day. She felt agitated and on edge, and everything seemed to go wrong. She was late in the morning even though she'd been awake for hours, so she and Hana had to run to the station, and they still missed the train. The next one was only ten minutes later, but that was enough that they had to run to school as well. Akemi had completely forgotten about one piece of homework - she later found it crumpled underneath a book at the bottom of her bag - so she was reprimanded for that. At lunch time it rained hard even though it was still only May, so they couldn't sit on their usual bench, and Akemi almost started a fight with one of the boys in their class when he wouldn't stop interrupting their conversation to try and get Hana to go on a date with him. Even beating her own record at track couldn't dispel the feeling.

"Let's go to the shrine," she said abruptly as they reached their home station.

"Huh?" Hana blinked. "Which shrine? Houkoku?"

"No, the one from the other day. With the cat, and the tree, and that… pendant thing."

"Oh, uh, Honmori? I think that was what it was called."

"Yeah, that one."

"Why?" Hana looked at her curiously. "Did it give you three wishes after all?"

"What?"

"The pendant."

"Oh." Akemi hadn't looked at it since she'd failed to clean it up. "No… it didn't do anything. But I just feel…" She hesitated, because this was weird even by their standards. "I feel like something's going to happen. If we go back."

Anyone else would have laughed, but Hana paused and then just said, "Okay."

The entrance to the shrine was on a side street off their route home from the station. They wouldn't normally have passed it, but on the day they'd chased the cat, Hana had wanted to go to a little shop a few blocks in that direction. The shrine gate led to a short stair and then a path through thick bushes. It seemed abandoned, although little touches here and there suggested that someone still kept the building in reasonable repair, and there were a few coins in the offering box.

For a small shrine it had a lot of trees around it, and somehow there seemed to be more of them this time. Her memory was that they'd gone straight to the clearing with the kitten, but now she couldn't find her way to it.

"That's weird, I'm sure it was right over here," said Hana.

"Me too." Akemi fought down an unexpected feeling of real panic. "I'm sure…"

She turned slowly on the spot, feeling like she was reaching out for _something_ and… she found it. A little tug of-- she didn't know what to call it, but she grabbed Hana's arm and leaped after it, chasing it like they'd chased the cat, and… there it was, the small clearing and the sprawling tree, just like before.

"Oh, you found it!" Hana walked into the middle of the clearing and peered at the bushes. "No sign of the kitten."

The _something_ had vanished, and Akemi didn't know what she was supposed to do now. _Come to me_. She'd dreamed that, right? But it had been dragging on her thoughts all day, and somehow she'd become so sure that this was the place she was supposed to come. _You are in danger_. It was getting dark again. Suddenly being in a place away from other people didn't seem like such a good idea.

"There's nothing here," she said.

Hana turned to look at her.

"What were you expecting?"

"I don't… know." And all at once Akemi felt like crying, even though she never cried. "I just thought there would be something."

Anyone else would have laughed, but Hana came over and put her arms around Akemi and held her tight without saying anything.

"Let's go home," Hana said finally.

"Yeah," said Akemi, turning her back on the tree and taking Hana's hand in hers as they began to push back through the bushes. "Let's go home."

* * *

They parted ways at the Sanjo Junction, like they always did. Hana headed east on the main road while Akemi crossed it and took her usual shortcut diagonally through the park. She'd walked through it so many times she barely saw it any more. It wasn't big, and there were no corners or overgrown patches to pose a threat after dark, just some grass, a few solitary trees, a lot of bare dirt, and a small play area by the drinking fountain in the centre. So Akemi was confused when she realised she hadn't reached the other side yet.

She stopped. It was almost fully dark, but she could clearly see the paths and the edges of the park. She'd come from Sanjo - she turned to check - and ahead of her was the gap in the buildings that was her exit point. She was right by the play area, but she was sure she'd passed it a minute ago. Akemi shook herself. She paused to drink from the fountain and splash some water on her face. Then she headed on home, this time keeping her eyes on the far gate. 

Maybe she'd been dawdling more than she realised. She kept thinking about stupid things, dreams and shadows and... stupid things. She felt like her heart had broken a bit when nothing had happened in the clearing, and that was just ridiculous. Maybe she needed more sleep. Or a break from studying. Not that her mother would let that happen any time soon...

She was by the fountain again. She'd... blinked, or... gotten lost in her thoughts for a moment and... she was coming up on the fountain from one of the side paths.

Akemi stopped dead, feeling like she'd just stepped off a kerb unexpectedly. Her heart had jolted and now was hammering uncontrollably. What the heck had happened there? Had she blacked out or something? It seemed darker now than it had a few minutes ago. Was something wrong with her eyes? Or her head? That was a scary thought. Especially with the weird way she'd been feeling all day. She wasn't... going crazy or something, was she?

There was a footstep from behind her, a soft sliding one that sounded like it wasn't meant to be heard. Akemi jerked around and saw someone coming from the Sanjo direction, just a guy in a suit, by the look of it, but... she didn't want him to reach her. She couldn't say why, but then, when had that ever stopped her acting on instinct?

She leaped forward and sprinted for her exit from the park. At her top speed it should only take her seconds to get there, and this time there was nothing distracting her. She ran for the gate and somehow...

... between one blink and the next...

... she was running back towards the fountain, and the man was right in front of her. His clothes were all wrong, like the guy from the day before. And his eyes... his eyes were in shadow.

"Who the hell are you?" Akemi yelled, backing up. "Why are you following me?"

The man didn't speak. A movement caught her eye and she looked to the side: there were more of them, stealthily coming up the paths. All in those salaryman suits that looked wrong. All eerily similar, like copies of a doll. There was only one that stood out, and that was because of what he was carrying: a briefcase, just an ordinary square one. But just as the clothes were wrong, the briefcase was too black, and too perfectly square. And the man was carrying it wrong, cradling it to his chest with both arms rather than holding it by the handle.

"Back off!" Akemi shouted. The words seemed to fall into emptiness with no effect, and all at once she was absolutely sure that no-one outside the park could hear her. "Get lost!"

The one holding the briefcase paused, but the others kept coming. Suddenly they were moving faster, swooping in before Akemi had time to react, and they... _grabbed_ her. Clumsily, like they weren't quite used to the shape of her, or the shape of themselves, but with a terrifying strength. Akemi struggled hard, but their grip didn't waver. It was like pushing against iron bars. Her arms were pinned so completely that she couldn't get an elbow or a fist free. Her school bag was crushed against her body; she could feel the sharp corners of books digging into her ribs. She couldn't run. For almost the first time in her life, she was terrified.

The one carrying the briefcase seemed to have been waiting until she was secured. Now he knelt and placed the briefcase on the ground. It opened with a click, and he reached inside. When he stood up, he was holding a knife... or rather, a dagger. It was long and the blade was slightly curved. It looked like something Akemi had once seen in a museum, displayed alongside a stone altar and a cup to catch the blood...

Her first horrified thought when they'd seized her had been, _They're going to rape me._ Now, with terrifying certainty, it became, _They're going to_ kill _me._

The man with the dagger raised it in front of him and took a step towards her. Desperately, Akemi looked around for someone, anyone else, but apart from her and the salarymen, the park was deserted. She wasn't even totally sure she was still _in_ the park. She could see the play area and the trees, but the city lights beyond had somehow vanished, as if a thick fog had abruptly descended. Or as if the park had been cut off from the rest of the city, the rest of the world, as if there was no way in or out now, no-one to come to her rescue.

Except... behind the man with the dagger, beside one of the trees, she caught a glimpse of a figure. The only reason she saw him at all was because of a faint bluish light from that direction, like the light from a phone screen. He was wearing what looked like body armour, and the light came from a headset or something, dimly illuminating his face. Akemi felt a piercing jab of hope. Maybe he was a policeman who'd seen these creepy guys come into the park. Maybe he was radioing for backup right now.

The man with the dagger was right in front of her, and now the dagger itself was glowing with a faint and eerie radiance. And there was another source of light: Akemi realised that her own body was haloed in the same pale glow. There wasn't _time_ to wait for backup. Why wasn't the policeman doing anything?

"Help me!" Akemi screamed as loud as she could. "Please!"

The faint blue light jerked, as though startled, and then vanished completely. Akemi had just the faintest impression of someone stepping behind the tree to hide. From her, or from her attackers? It didn't matter. What mattered was, that person - whether he was a policeman or not - wasn't going to help her.

That made her so angry she almost stopped being afraid.

 _"Coward!"_ she yelled. She surged forward, trying to kick out at the salaryman holding the dagger even though she knew it was useless, and...

... the light around her surged too, blazing up bright like a forest fire, suddenly gold and orange and fierce instead of pale foxfire. The hands holding her flinched from its touch, lost their strength, and she broke _free_ , just for a second. The man holding the dagger lunged towards her, and the others were right behind her, ready to grab her again, and Akemi felt something building behind her eyes and in her chest, a pressure she couldn't contain.

_"Get away from me!"_

Fire exploded out from where she stood, a ring of flame that roared higher than the trees as it raced away from her. It threw her attackers back, tumbling them in a flurry of flames across the park - and she could see the park again now, she could see the lights and the play area, and someone running from the wall of fire: the man in the body armour racing to get away. Then the flames winked out as fast as they'd appeared. The air was sharp with smoke and the men who'd attacked her were smouldering where they lay, but nothing else seemed to have caught fire.

Akemi stood frozen, caught in a perfect balance between disbelief and terror. Then one of the men twitched and started to rise from the ground. Except it… didn't look like a man anymore. The drab salaryman colours had melted into a mess of darkness. Its outline was human… humanoid… except for the suggestion of spines jutting from the backs of its elbows and neck…

She ran.

This time the park let her go.


	2. The Flame

It took all Akemi's willpower not to fly in through the door of the apartment and slam it behind her. At the last second she forced herself to stop, and breathe deeply, and then put her key in the door with shaking hands and let herself in as quietly as possible.

The television was on in the living room. She shut the door behind her carefully, took off her shoes, and hung up her coat. By the time she spoke, she was almost sure her voice sounded normal.

"I'm home."

"Welcome back," her mother said from the kitchen. "There's tea."

The exchange was so normal her racing heart slowed a little even as she glanced at the shadows nervously.

"Okay, in a minute," Akemi called, stepping up out of the entryway and opening her bedroom door in the same movement. Not for the first time, she was glad the apartment's two bedrooms opened off the hallway one after another before it reached the living room. She'd been saved from more than one scolding by hurrying into her room to clean up evidence of scrapes or dirt, or just to get time to compose herself.

She shut the door behind her and leaned against it. She was still shaking. She realised she didn't know what to do now; she'd sort of thought, if she could just get home, everything would be okay. It would all make sense, or it would all go _away_ , or she'd know it wasn't real…

She could still feel the memory of the fire's heat on her skin. Her knees buckled and she slowly slid down the door to land in an awkward sitting position at its foot, her bag slipping from her shoulder to land next to her. Something about the sound it made as it fell… a metallic noise, probably her phone hitting the wooden floor… struck a chord in the back of her mind. She stared at the bag for almost a minute before suddenly grabbing it and upending it, sending her books and possessions scattering over the floor of her bedroom. When she found the bundle of tissue that had been at the bottom of it, she hesitated again before slowly unwrapping it.

She gasped when she saw the disc. The dull black grime and tarnish was gone. It gleamed golden in her hand, and now she could see that the glass in the centre was set into the shape of a radiant sun. It glittered when it caught the light. There were intricate patterns engraved around the glass. The chain that had been broken was now whole, as clean and new-looking as the rest of it, and there was a clasp on the rim of the disc, just as she'd suspected. Hesitantly, with shaking fingers, she opened it.

Inside was… a mirror. That was it. She stared at her own reflection in the silver circle and all at once, whatever half-crazy thought she had been pursuing dissolved.

"It's just a stupid pocket mirror," she said, and jumped at the loudness of her own voice. "What's _wrong_ with you, Akemi?"

_"Akemi."_

Her name was like an echo in another voice that seemed to whisper in the back of her mind without passing through her ears. Akemi shut the lid and almost threw the golden disc back into her bag. This was _stupid._ This was _crazy._ It was a pocket mirror someone had lost, that was all. The tissues that had been wrapped around it were stained black: the tarnish had probably just rubbed off as it was jostled around in her bag.

She pushed to the back of her mind the thought that no amount of accidental polishing could have restored the chain, and stumbled to her feet, and fled from her own bedroom as if she were five years old again and scared of the dark.

There was a faint sigh from the room behind her… but it could have been the wind through leaves. 

Except there were no trees near the apartment block.

* * *

The next day was Saturday, which meant cram school in the morning, except this week Akemi pulled the covers over her head when her alarm went off.

"I don't feel well," she said when Izumi came to see why she wasn't up yet. "I think I have a cold."

She'd learned a long time ago not to fake being sick. It never worked on her mother. Izumi always knew. But she was desperate enough to try it after a night of broken sleep, terrifying dreams, and jumping at every shadow.

And today Izumi took one look at her and said, "Oh no, you don't look well at all. I'll call the school," and left Akemi torn between relief and guilt. The guilt only worsened when Izumi brought her breakfast in to her, but then she found that sitting up made her head throb, and her appetite was almost non-existent, and she wondered if she really _was_ sick. Maybe… that was all it was. Maybe she'd had a fever yesterday without knowing it. Maybe she'd been seeing things. Maybe…

It was easier to fall asleep in the daylight. Izumi woke her later in the morning, and she spent the time until lunch reading manga in bed. She couldn't remember the last time she'd been able to spend hours like that just lying around and reading. When she got up for lunch, she found the headache was gone and she actually wanted to eat the meal Izumi set out for her.

"You look better," Izumi said. "I need to go to work soon. I've already made your dinner. Will you be all right by yourself?"

"Yes, of course," Akemi said.

It was even true, for a while, as she watched television, cleaned up the kitchen, and did some homework at the table, out of some vague desire to atone for missing cram school. It was true… right up until it started to get dark out. 

It was when she realised the room was dim, and got up to turn on the light. All at once, the fear came back, even as the living room sprang into brightness. The television was still on, but Akemi grabbed the remote and muted it, listening for… something. She wasn't sure what. A voice, like the voice she kept hearing in her dreams? Or some hint that the shadow men were coming… no longer in the form of men, but twisted into spiny forms that crept along walls and into cracks…

She strode across the room and turned the television off with a vicious jab of the button.

"This is ridiculous."

She made herself walk briskly into her bedroom. Her bag was still lying where she'd left it after retrieving her homework. She reached into it and picked up the medallion, forcing her fingers to close on it without flinching.

"You are just a silly mirror," she said loudly, "and I am going to throw you away."

There were dumpsters on the other side of the car park. Akemi put on her shoes, let herself out, and walked quickly down the stairs and across the asphalt. The sun was already low on the horizon, but the streetlights were on and dozens of windows in the apartment block were bright as families cooked their dinners. It was safe here. It had to be. Otherwise nothing made sense.

She reached the nearest dumpster and paused before lifting the lid. An irrational conviction seized her that one of the shadow-men would be inside it, ready to pounce. She gritted her teeth and forced herself to fling open the lid, ready to jump back if necessary.

There was nothing inside except malodorous bags of rubbish. Akemi took a shaky breath… just as the sun finally dipped behind the city skyline. Twilight and a sudden hush filled the world. She spun around, and saw them slipping from under the parked cars, and out of the spaces beneath the stairs.

Akemi couldn't help it, she screamed - but the sound fell flat, just as her voice had been without echo in the park. There was no-one in sight, on the road or on any of the balconies. The shadows were all around her, in a loose ring that was slowly tightening. They were still trying to look like men, but now she saw them clearly. They were like paper cut-outs given a flimsy kind of three-dimensionality, and everything from their hair to their features to their clothing was clumsily collaged over the top to disguise them. She had thought their eyes were in shadow, but she saw now that they were simply empty black spaces that betrayed the true nature of the form beneath the disguise. 

_"Akemi."_

This time she could almost hear the voice in her ears as well as her mind. She desperately looked for the speaker, but saw no-one.

_"Akemi. Listen to me. You are awakening."_

A shiver of recognition went through her. "What--?"

_"They are drawn to your aura. They mistake you for one of their prey, little realising that you are so much more."_

"More? More what?"

_"More powerful. More dangerous. More defiant. You are one of the chosen."_ The voice grew louder and now Akemi could tell it was a woman's. _"Your purpose is to fight them, to thwart their designs and defend others from their attacks."_

The shadows were drawing closer, but all at once Akemi was angrier than she had ever been in her life. Angry at her own fear, and at the shadows for causing it, and at the world for abruptly ceasing to make any sense, but mostly, angry at the disembodied voice for letting her down with such a _cliche_ …

"What is this? Some sort of joke?" she demanded. "A game? Pretending we're in a manga or something? Are you making fun of me?" She stared at the advancing shadows, trying in vain to see any sign that they were only some sort of costume, some sort of trick. "It's not funny! _Stop it_!"

_"This is not a joke or a game, Sol! You must defend yourself!"_

_Sol._ The name struck her like a blow. It was foreign and strange next to the Japanese she'd spoken all her life, and yet so familiar, so welcome she could have cried. _Sol…_

"… defend myself?"

_"The medallion. Hold it against your chest._ "

She was still clutching it tightly in one hand. She raised it disbelievingly. The shadows were almost close enough to touch, but maybe they were wary, after what had happened to them last time. They hung back from trying to grab her. The twilight deepened, and she saw the one with the knife slip out from a patch of darkness behind a wall and raise the blade to point directly at her.

_"Hold the medallion above your heart and step through,_ " the voice said urgently.

"Step through?"

_"I cannot describe it in more detail, but you-- the others before you have told me that is the best way to describe it."_

"Others?"

_"Others… others who have served in the Celestial Guard.You are not the first to bear the title Guardian Sol."_

And something flashed through her mind, deja vu or the feeling of falling, and doubt slipped away like the end of a dream, and she… stepped through.

It was like being turned inside-out, except it wasn't in any way unpleasant. In fact, it was as if something that had been coiled up and tense inside her was suddenly, gratefully released. A flash of heat like a momentary fever spread from her chest to the tips of her fingers, and her whole body seemed to glow, the way it had in the park, only brighter. Then for a second it was too bright to see, and then it was gone. And she had changed. Her _clothes_ had changed, but more than that, a door had opened in her mind, and the panic and disbelief had flown out of it.

_"There are words--"_

"I know."

She was still holding the medallion against her chest. She slowly traced the engraved pattern with her thumb and when she spoke, she found her words were in old Japanese, the style of speaking she'd heard in samurai movies:

"I call upon the sun, my liege, bright lord of the day." Akemi felt that rising pressure again, a heat that would not be contained. "Grant me the power to overcome the dark!"

That was all that came to her, as clear as if she had remembered it, but as she felt the power crystallise around her, and looked into the distorted faces of the shadows, saw the wan glow of the knife, Akemi realised she had one more thing to say to them.

_"Burn."_

This time the fire was more than a wall. It was a sphere of flame that expanded out like a star going nova. Akemi could feel the shape of it as if it were a breath she was letting out of her lungs. Flames wrapped around the shadows like chains. Akemi let the rest of the fire vanish before it could burn anything else around her, but she tightened the grip it had on the shadows.

She almost hoped they would scream, but they were silent as they struggled, their forms blurred by smoke and eaten away by the flames.The one with the knife didn't fight at all. It just stared at her with its black void eyes as it crumbled into ash. For just a second Akemi saw the knife hanging in midair before it plunged point-down into the flames that were still eagerly consuming the last traces of the shadow.

And... they were gone. Akemi felt the fire within her ebb, and then all that was left were piles of ash and cinder on the asphalt. A moment later the wind caught them and blew them away, and then there was nothing at all to show what had just taken place.

Akemi walked hesitantly to where she'd seen the knife fall, but there was no trace of it. She wondered if the fire had destroyed it too, but... she thought not. She couldn't have said why. She lifted the medallion and clicked open the catch, staring at her own face in the mirror as if she'd never seen it before.

_"Sol?"_ The voice was clearer now, as clear as if she were speaking on a cell phone. _"Akemi? Can you hear me?"_

"Yeah, I can hear you, but…" Akemi looked down at herself for the first time, and irrepressible, hysterical laughter boiled up within her. Her clothes were… she was… "How is this even… Am I… am I some sort of magical girl?"

_"I suppose you could call it magic,"_ said the voice, _"though it is a trivial word for the power you wield."_

"Who are you?"

_"Call me Sakaki. I am your guide. Come to me and we shall talk properly."_

"Come where?"

_"To the shrine. To the place where you found the medallion."_

"But there was nothing there."

_"I was there. And I am waiting there still. Come."_

* * *

By the time Akemi reached the shrine, it was fully dark. Akemi raced up the steps and plunged into the trees without a pause. She almost laughed at the darkness: it didn't scare her any more. Not now she knew how to fight it. She caught a glint of light in the undergrowth, the glimmer of a cat's eyes. She wondered if it was the white cat. Seems like it had led her to adventure after all.

This time she had no trouble finding the clearing, but as she came to a stop and looked around she couldn't see anyone there.

"Sakaki?"

"I am here." 

Sakaki's voice was right behind her. Akemi spun around, startled, but all she saw was the tree she'd climbed to try and rescue the kitten. There was no-one hiding behind it, or up in its branches… at least, no-one human-sized.

"Are you a talking cat?" she blurted out.

"What?" Sakaki sounded affronted. "A _cat_? Me? Don't be ridiculous!"

"You call _that_ ridiculous?" Akemi put her hands on her hips and peered around at the shadows. "Come out, then. I can't see you."

A sigh.

"You are not _looking_ , Sol. I am right in front of you."

There was a faint glow in the clearing, like the glow that had surrounded her in the park, but this time its source was the tree in front of her. The light was so faint it could almost be mistaken for reflected starlight, but it clustered like blossoms among the leaves. The branches were moving as if stirred by a heavy breeze, though the air around her was still. All the other trees were motionless, not a leaf twitching. As Akemi stared, the whole trunk of the tree bent towards her, slowly and gracefully, in something like a bow.

"How," she said after a long moment, "is a talking tree any less ridiculous than a talking cat?"

"I am not a _talking tree,_ " said the talking tree indignantly. "I am a wandering spirit whose anchor to this realm happens to be this sacred _sakaki_ in the grove of the Honmori Shrine."

"Can you be in something else?"

"No, I cannot move around at will--"

"… so you're basically a tree. Who is talking to me. Right now. A talking tree."

Akemi started to giggle. She couldn't help herself.

"I am _not_ \--" Sakaki paused. When she spoke again she sounded, for the first time, less formal, and even faintly amused. "Oh, as you please. Will you listen to what the talking tree has to say?"

The giggling turned into outright laughter. "I can't believe this is happening!" She paused as a new thought occurred. "Wait, you were here the whole time? When I came back with Hana?"

"As we have established, I cannot exactly uproot myself and walk away."

"Why didn't you _say_ something?" Akemi demanded. "I _knew_ I was supposed to come back here! I came all the way and you just sat there! I thought I was going crazy!"

"I am sorry. I could not speak in front of your friend."

"Why not? She's going to love this!"

"You cannot possibly think of revealing your secret to her!" Sakaki's voice was sharp with real alarm. "For heaven's sake, Sol, try and take this seriously!"

"I'm a magical girl! You're a talking tree! There is nothing serious about anything that is going on here!"

Sakaki started to retort, paused, and seemed to reconsider.

"What is a manga?" she asked.

Akemi blinked. "What?"

"You mentioned it before, when you thought this was a game."

"It's, uh… it's a kind of book. Only, it's mostly pictures rather than words." Akemi tried to think how to explain the concept of a comic to someone who hadn't seen one. "It's a story, anyway. And I usually… read the ones where someone ordinary turns out to have special powers. Like… this."

All at once it was crashing in on her how impossible this all was. Her legs felt wobbly. She sat down abruptly on the ground.

"I can't believe this is happening," she said again, quietly.

Sakaki's leaves began to rustle as if blown in a steady breeze. The sound was very soothing, and a little like the noise of the sea.

"You are a child of a world that has long turned its back on the old ways," Sakaki said gently. "This must be very strange for you. Stranger than it has been in the past."

"In the past? What do you mean?"

Sakaki seemed to hesitate, but only for a moment.

"There have been other Guardians before you… many others. With every handful of hundred years, the world turns in a certain way and the Infernal Multitude begins to stir and wake once more. And when those times come, I too awaken from the dreaming sleep of the forests, and begin my search for… for new Guardians, to hold back the darkness."

"And I'm one of them?"

"Yes. I have… chosen you to be the new Guardian Sol, the leader of the Celestial Guard."

"Leader? Me?" Akemi shook her head. "That's… I mean… that's a lot of responsibility! I don't know what to do!"

"That is why I am here, to guide you."

"What did you call those shadow things? The eternal what-itude?"

"The Infernal Multitude. The shadow-men are known as Spectres. They are not mindless, but not particularly intelligent, either. They follow orders."

"Whose orders?"

"They are led by the Archdukes."

"And the Archdukes are--- wait, I can't keep track of all this."

Akemi reached for her pocket automatically, then realised that she didn't have a pocket, and she definitely didn't have her phone to make notes on. All she had were her keys. She hadn't even gone back into the apartment for a coat. For the first time she looked at herself properly.

She'd thought she was wearing a skirt, but she realised now it was a sort of tunic, sleeveless, deep red and flared from the waist, with a belt and trim in contrasting orange. Most of her body was swathed in a thick, white, stretchy material like a whole-body pair of leggings. She tugged at it, curious. It didn't feel like the artificial fibres she was used to, and it was pleasant against her skin. She wasn't cold, despite the lack of a coat. She also wore boots and gloves in the same deep red, with the same orange trim. There was a little weight on her shoulders; turning her head, she could see what looked like glass beads set in the same shiny golden metal as the medallion.

She put her hands behind her back, feeling around her waist with a frown. Sakaki, who had apparently been waiting for her to continue speaking, said curiously, "What are you doing?"

"Trying to see if I have some sort of enormous ribbon back here." Akemi jumped to her feet and spun around. "Do I?"

"No," said Sakaki, sounding faintly bemused. "It's certainly an interesting take on the livery."

"The what?"

"Livery. The clothes you wear. The Celestial Guard have always borne their traditional colours, but the medallions contain a power to alter your guise according to the world you live in."

"Really?" Akemi cast a skeptical glance at herself. "I mean, wouldn't a military uniform have made more sense?"

"It has often been one in the past. But it responds to you and your conception of what such garb should look like."

"… so I look like a magical girl because I think I should look like a magical girl?"

"Apparently."

"That's… kind of embarrassing."

"I think you look fine," said Sakaki encouragingly. "There can certainly be no doubt of your allegiance. The Multitude will learn to fear you."

"Right, the Multitude. Those… Spectres, what do they want? What are they trying to do?"

"They seek souls that stand out from the rest."

"To, uh… do what, exactly?"

"Take them."

"Oh." Akemi shuddered. "So that knife…"

"A ritual implement designed to extract the soul without damaging it. The Archdukes collect the brightest souls to gain their power."

"That's horrible."

"Yes." Sakaki shifted her leaves again. There was something very human about the movement, even though Akemi couldn't have mapped it to any expression she could name. "Unfortunately, the Celestial Guard has never managed to completely destroy them. They always come back, but the more we hurt them, the longer they must slumber. They have slowly been growing in power for the last year…"

"A _year_?" exclaimed Akemi. "Why didn't you find some Guardians sooner?"

"I don't have any control over when and how the power surfaces," Sakaki said. "You are the first I have found, but I believe others will begin to awaken soon. I already sense the stirrings of other bright souls nearby."

"Yeah, I bet you do." Akemi grinned. "Hana's one of them, right?"

"No."

The smile dropped off Akemi's face. "What?"

"She does not have the potential."

"But… why not?"

"I told you, I have no control over where and how new Guardians awaken."

"That… that isn't fair."

"No," said Sakaki, and there was something in her voice that made Akemi go still. "It is not fair. It has never been fair, that you must fight the darkness so that she and her kind may continue to live in ignorance and safety. I am sorry."

"Wait, what? Are you kidding? This is awesome!" Akemi shook away the chill that Sakaki's words had brought over her. "This is, this is _it_ , you know? This is the point. I was starting to think… there wasn't one. There wasn't a point. In anything. But now there is. And, and if I can keep Hana safe, then of course I'll do anything I need to! Hana, and everyone else!"

"I would expect nothing less," Sakaki said after a pause. There was a sadness in her voice that Akemi didn't understand. "But you must find allies as soon as possible. It is dangerous for you to fight alone."

"But… where do I look?"

"I do not yet know. I sense the bright souls as they begin to stir, but I cannot tell which are potential Guardians until they fully awaken. When I gain a stronger sense of another soul, I will tell you where to go - the mirror inside your crest serves as a means of communication between us. But for now… you must be careful, and stay hidden. Do not let them find you again. Do not return to your home in Guard colours, and do not ever change your form where others can see you."

"Okay, I… wait, what time is it?"

"Now, how do you expect me to answer that?" Sakaki asked in some exasperation. "I live by the stars and the rising of the sun. It is night, it is not late…"

"It's late enough… Mom will be home soon! And I'm supposed to be sick… if she gets back and I'm not there…"

"You had better be there," Sakaki said. "You must not cause people to ask too many questions…"

"Right, right! I'm going!" Akemi bolted for the edge of the clearing, then paused. "Wait, how do I make the-- the livery go away?"

"Do the opposite of what you did to transform."

"Er…"

Akemi struggled to recall the feeling of stepping _through_ and what that would be like backwards, but… all she could think of was getting home in time to avoid the unthinkable scenario of explaining to Izumi why she'd run off in the dark without her phone or her bag, and worse, trying to _lie_ … 

"I'll figure it out! And I'll come back when I can!" She ran into the trees, calling back over her shoulder, "and I'll bring you a clock!"

The clearing was silent after she left. Sakaki rearranged her branches, and the faint glow fell from them like rain, but whatever she was thinking, this time she did not voice it even to the empty sky.

* * *

Shoichi woke suddenly, as if he'd heard a noise, but everything was quiet inside and outside the house. Not even the neighbour's pomeranian was barking. He sat up slowly and put a hand to his forehead. The skin was cool. Why had he thought it might be hot? He'd been dreaming, and the dream… he couldn't remember it, but it had the quality of delirium, packed with intense and desperate emotions he couldn't place in his waking life.

There'd been a voice, he thought. But he couldn't quite remember…

_You are awakening._

… what it had been saying.

He shook himself, and lay back down. Dreams were just dreams, and he had a test in the morning.


	3. She Who Fights Monsters

"Are you sure about this?" Akemi whispered into the medallion as she loitered around the corner from the nightclub. "I'll be in so much trouble if I get caught."

_"Then don't get caught."_

"Helpful." Akemi peered around the corner again. "How am I supposed to get in? The door's locked and there's no-one around yet. They don't open for another four hours."

_"Is there a back way, a servants' entrance?"_

"There's probably a fire exit somewhere..." Akemi looked doubtfully at the tall buildings behind the nightclub, wondering how she would even get back there. "This would be easier if I could go over the roof."

_"Then do that."_

"What? I can't!"

_"Why not?"_

"I..." 

Akemi struggled to answer. I mean, she _could_ get up on the roof, right? She could climb well enough. She was pretty strong. She could see a fire escape on one of the neighbouring buildings. In _theory_ , she could climb that and then jump over to the next roof...

The idea of _actually doing it_ made her feel suddenly unreal, like she was dreaming or acting in a play, and at the same time a big thrill of possibility went through her, like chains falling away. There'd been a lot of that in the last couple of days.

On the one hand, she felt like all the colour had suddenly come back into her world. Homework and cram school and classes seemed inconsequential now. On the other hand, you didn't suddenly stop having to do them just because a talking tree had told you to save the world. Especially when you couldn't tell anybody about that part.

Akemi had never really understood the point of a secret identity in the stories. If you were a superhero, why hide it? It only ever seemed to cause problems in the end. But that was before she'd tried to imagine the reactions of her mother, her teachers, her friends... tried to imagine them and felt sick. Would they call the police or the psychiatrists first? She didn't like to think.

Not Hana, of course. Hana would get it. Hana would _love_ it, except... except how could Akemi tell her she'd been chosen for this, and Hana hadn't? Sakaki could say what she liked about 'potential'... Akemi just couldn't understand how things could have worked out that way. So when Hana asked her if she was feeling better now, she lied, and said she thought she'd had a cold or something, but she was over it, and didn't mention the shadows that walked. Or where she was going after school, on Sakaki's instructions.

"I suppose I could get up there," Akemi said finally. "But what if someone sees me?"

_"What could they do if they did?"_

"They could call the police."

_"And what could the police do?"_

"Arrest me?"

_"You can outrun them."_

"Okay, but what if someone takes a picture or something? And then it goes on the news and my mother sees it and..."

 _"Have no fear of that,"_ Sakaki said. _"When you are wearing the Guardian colours, you are... hard to see."_

"Hard to see? Like, invisible?"

 _"No, I mean..."_ Sakaki paused, and Akemi almost thought she could hear the distant sound of the wind in her leaves. _"You will be seen, but you will not be recognised. Even by those who are close to you. You could walk up to your mother as Guardian Sol and she would not know her daughter. Only by seeing the moment of transformation can the spell be broken for outsiders."_

"Oh. That's... convenient, I guess. Less explaining to do."

_"Indeed."_

Akemi stared at the medallion as the implications settled in. "So wait - I can do anything, and no-one will know it's me? Even without a mask?"

 _"Yes._ " A note of mild alarm crept into Sakaki's voice. _"Er... within reason, of course."_

"So... I could rob a bank or something, then?"

_"Definitely not!"_

"I'm kidding," said Akemi, a bubble of lightness in her chest. She could do _anything_! And no-one could call her school or her mother or tell her she was too old to be playing around. She looked at the roof again. She really _could_ climb it. She could see just how to do it. It would be so _cool_. "And there are Spectres in there?"

_"Yes. I feel their shadow. They may be waiting for their next victim."_

"Okay." Akemi slipped into a narrow gap between buildings that only just qualified as an alley. She could feel the transformation waiting to happen, like it was impatient to be let out. "Here I go."

A few minutes later she was balancing on the fire escape, heart hammering as she prepared to jump the gap. Sakaki had said she was stronger in this form, and healed quicker from any wounds. She wouldn't like to put it to the test by hitting the ground from up here, though. But the gap wasn't so big, and really it was just like jumping over the storm drain by the school...

It was easy. It was so easy she was laughing as she landed on the roof. She flipped open the medallion again to say breathlessly, "This is amazing."

_"Try not to get carried away."_

"Would I?"

_"Yes. With enthusiasm."_

It was kind of weird, and kind of awesome, how Sakaki talked to her as if they'd known each other forever. Maybe it was part of whatever powers she had.

There were a couple of skylights in the roof, and one of them wasn't well latched. Akemi managed to get it open, and from there she could climb down into a cluttered storeroom full of chairs and boxes. She slipped out into a corridor and turned on the lights. She'd expected the nightclub to be spooky with no-one there, but it was more dingy than anything, and as she lit up room after room, she found nothing more unsettling than a stack of porn magazines in the staff room and someone's socks dangling out of a half-open locker door.

"I can't find any Spectres," she said after a while. "Are you sure this is the right place?"

_"They won't be in the open. Look in crannies and crevices, places where you might search for a rat in the walls."_

Akemi looked around the main dance floor, frowning. It certainly looked like the sort of place you might find rats, but there weren't any obvious hiding spots. Except... her eyes were drawn to the vents for the air conditioning system.

"Hang on," she said, "I've got an idea..."

She had to find a ladder in one of the back room areas, and then, after her first attempt, she had to go back and look for a screwdriver to get the vent cover off its mounting.

"Don't I have any magic powers to open things like this?" she groused to Sakaki as she was pulling open drawers in the back office.

 _"Lockpicking was not forseen as a duty of the Guard at the time of their inception,"_ Sakaki replied with just a little too much primness for Akemi's taste. It wasn't like she'd even be here if Sakaki hadn't told her to come. _"You could perhaps melt the metal with your fire?"_

"I think I'll leave that as a last resort."

Screwdriver in hand, she returned to the ladder and removed the vent cover as carefully as she could. Then she peered into the darkness behind.

"I don't see anything here--" she began... except suddenly, she did.

It was like looking at one of those trick pictures where the space between two faces becomes a vase. Suddenly she realised the formless darkness in front of her _was_ the Spectre's form, twisted into the confined space and glaring malevolently from eyes she could not really see.

It was such an unexpected shock, she screamed and fell off the ladder.

_"Sol? Are you all right?"_

"I... I was not expecting that. At all." Akemi cautiously climbed back up and steeled herself for another look. It was less terrifying now she knew what to expect, but still deeply scary somehow, even though the Spectre wasn't... moving. "What's it doing? It's just... sitting there."

_"It is waiting for its master to bring it some poor soul for sacrifice."_

"Oh." Akemi stared at the shadow, which stared back. She had the impression of needle-like teeth somewhere in the darkness. "So do I just..."

 _"This is more suited to your talents, I believe,"_ Sakaki said with amusement.

"I feel like I should resent that." Akemi stretched out a hand into the vent and took a deep breath. "Okay... I call upon the sun, my liege, bright lord of the day. Grant me the power to overcome the dark!"

Gouts of fire poured into the hole. She saw flickering red light behind the other vents in the room as the flames sped through the whole ventilation system. She could sort of... feel the fire, almost, like a ghostly limb. She didn't have much fine control over it but she could push it onward until there was nothing left to burn.

 _"The darkness is gone,"_ Sakaki said just as Akemi was wondering when to stop. _"You have succeeded."_

"Really?" Akemi let the fire fade away. "Just like that?"

_"This was only a small infestation. The next one will not be as easy."_

Akemi picked up the vent cover and started trying to screw it back into place.

"There's a next one?"

 _"There are many, I fear. The shadows have had ample time to pool in this city."_ Sakaki sounded like she was frowning as she went on, _"Though I find their methods strange. They usually choose out-of-the-way places or fortified sanctuaries to take their victims, not somewhere so public and frequented by passers by..."_

"Are they about to steal anyone's soul right now?"

_"Unlikely. I would feel the presence of the obsidian knife."_

"Then I'll have to do the next one tomorrow," Akemi said, climbing down the ladder. She was slightly worried by the charred smell now circulating through the club, but then, she couldn't be sure it hadn't smelled like that already. "I still have homework to get through." She paused thoughtfully. "I don't have any magic powers to do that for me, do I?"

_"I refer you to my previous answer on the role of the Guard."_

"... right."

* * *

Sakaki had told her to keep the medallion with her at all times, but that was easier said than done. Fortunately they were still wearing the winter uniform at school, so as long as she kept her blazer on, the golden disk was well hidden under her shirt. She'd thought it would be uncomfortable to wear it around her neck all the time, but it seemed less heavy than it should be, somehow. After a few days she started forgetting it was even there. Which was how she ended up unthinkingly unbuttoning her shirt all the way while she was changing for gym class. Before she could pull it closed, Hana said, "Ooh!" and Akemi froze like a rabbit in the headlights.

"Is that a new bra?" Hana said.

"... what?"

"New bra. It's cute!"

Akemi stared at her, struggling to actually process the words. Hana's smile faltered and she began to turn red.

"What? What's wrong?"

"It's... it's not new," Akemi stammered. She quickly shrugged out of her school shirt and grabbed her gym top. By the time she'd pulled it over her head, Hana was busy tying the laces on her shoes. "Uh... I'm just going to get a drink of water."

Drinking from the fountain gave her a few moments to get a hold of herself. The medallion had been _right there_ , but Hana hadn't even seemed to notice. Was that part of what Sakaki had meant about being hard to see? Akemi wasn't sure she liked it. It reminded her of the way the Spectres had looked mostly normal until she started to see through the cracks. It was kind of creepy. And it made her wonder what else there was out there in the world that people didn't know about.

* * *

The medallion worked kind of like a two-way radio (although Sakaki was affronted when Akemi described it like that): when the case was open, Akemi could speak to Sakaki through the mirror, and Sakaki could apparently see glimpses of what was happening around Akemi. Closing it cut off the connection, but if Sakaki was trying to reach her, Akemi felt a tingling sensation, like a minor jolt of static electricity had come from the crest.

It was difficult to keep up a normal conversation with Izumi when it kept happening during dinner. Akemi didn't dare leave the table without an explanation; the rule since she was a child had been that you sat up at the table for meals and didn't leave until everyone was done. As soon as she'd finished, and helped with the washing up, she fled to her room and opened the medallion.

"I'm sorry, I couldn't get away," she said. "Isn't there some way to leave a message on these things?"

 _"No,"_ said Sakaki, _"but never mind that. Come to the shrine as soon as you can."_

"I can come after school tomorrow--"

 _"No, Sol_. _I mean tonight."_

"Tonight?" Akemi glanced nervously at her closed door, as if her mother might walk in at any moment. "I can't go out - Mom will want to know where I'm going, and it's too late to be meeting Hana or someone..."

_"Then you must wait until she is asleep and slip away."_

"Why do I need to come to the shrine? If you need to tell me something, can't you say it now?"

_"I would prefer to tell you in person. It may take some time."_

Akemi sighed. "Okay. I'll be there when I can."

* * *

It felt strange to be out so late alone, but exciting as well. The streets were different at midnight. Akemi used the medallion to transform before she left her room, so no-one would recognise her on the way. She felt self-conscious in her Guardian colours, but the few people she passed didn't seem to think it was strange. Maybe that was the "hard to see" thing again. Either that or they were too tired - or drunk, in several cases - to notice anything out of the ordinary.

This time she'd brought a torch, and when she got to the clearing she set it down so that it illuminated a circle under Sakaki's branches.

"Okay, I'm here."

"Good. Sit down, this may take a little while."

Akemi sat, thinking as she did so that she really ought to bring a cushion or something along if she was going to be spending a lot of time here.

"Do you remember that I told you the Spectres seek bright souls?" Sakaki went on.

"Yes." Akemi frowned, thinking back. "You said they give the Multitude power, right?"

"Yes. Some of the brightest souls are... special. They contain within them the remnants of ancient magic, crystallised into the form of a shard of glass. The Archdukes seek these shards to bolster their strength, but they must not get them."

"Well, yeah, obviously." Akemi wasn't sure why Sakaki was making this sound so solemn. "I'll keep burning up Spectres and protect anyone with one of these shards--"

"It won't be that simple," Sakaki said quietly. "You _cannot_ protect them, Sol."

Akemi stared at the tree in stunned silence for several seconds.

"What? What do you mean? Of course I--"

"There are scores of them, perhaps hundreds. I already sense a dozen or more in this city, growing brighter by the day - and easier for the Spectres to track down. You cannot protect so many people all the time, and the Multitude will not give up. If you guard one shard day and night, they will seek out another, and when you turn your attention to protecting that one, they will come back for the person you have now left unguarded."

"But... but then..." Akemi swallowed hard, feeling tears prick her eyes, "... what's the _point_ of me?"

"The Guard exists to prevent the Multitude from gaining enough power to turn this world to darkness," said Sakaki. "And, ultimately, to defeat them. You cannot keep the shard bearers safe, but you _can_ take the shard from the Multitude once it has been extracted, and bring it here, where I shall stand guard over it."

"What about the person it comes from?" Akemi asked, almost in a whisper. "Will they... will they die?"

"No... not at first, anyway." At Akemi's gasp, Sakaki hurried on, "Listen! I know this is hard for you to hear, but listen to me. It is not as grim as it first appears. It is true that a body without a soul will eventually die. And when the shard is removed from its bearer, the soul is drawn with it unless it is in some way anchored to the body. There is a way to create such an anchor... but it is not a power you possess."

"Then what's the use--"

"Your powers come from the sun," Sakaki continued, talking over Akemi's objection, "which represents the body, and the realm of the physical. We must find another Guardian to take on the powers of the moon, which governs the ways of the soul. They will be able to separate the soul from the shard. Once this has been done, as long as no harm comes to the shard, no harm will come to the bearer."

Akemi closed her eyes and took a deep breath, trying to get her chaotic thoughts in order.

"... so I have to let them do it?" she said at last. She remembered the black knife and the terror of being held by the Spectres as it advanced towards her. "I have to let them cut out someone's soul, and not stop them?"

"Yes."

"But... they'll be okay? As long as we can do the anchor thing?"

"Yes. As long as Luna can reach them in time, they will not be harmed."

 _Luna._ The same shiver of recognition went through Akemi that had come with her own title. "Guardian Luna?"

"Yes."

"But... there is no Guardian Luna yet. There's just me."

"I know." Sakaki sighed. "I have been hoping that we would find a suitable candidate before the Multitude find any more of the shards, but--"

"Wait, any _more_?"

"... I told you they have been active for a year now in this city. They have already tracked down and taken a number of shards."

"This is... this is..." Akemi leaped to her feet and half-ran a few steps away. She felt like screaming. She felt like crying. "This isn't how it's supposed to go! People aren't supposed to _die!_ "

Sakaki was quiet for a few moments as Akemi gasped for breath and fought back tears.

"They may yet live," she said finally. "In this time and place, things have changed significantly."

"What do you mean?"

"A body without a soul falls into a sleep like death. In centuries past, they could not be kept alive in such a state. They would not eat or drink, and become so weak they could not draw breath, and so they would die. But in this time... in this place, there are wonders of technology I have never witnessed before. I have heard people speak of machines that can intervene--"

"Life-support." Akemi slowly turned back to face Sakaki. The sheer panic that had been threatening to overwhelm her was ebbing just a bit. "They go into a coma, that's what you're saying, right? And when someone goes into a coma, they get taken to hospital, they get put on drips to give them food and water, and if they need it, life-support machines keep them breathing..."

"That is what I thought," said Sakaki. "These machines keep the body alive. Which means that if the shards can be retrieved, there may be some way to return the souls of the bearers to their bodies."

" _May_ be?"

"It has never been tried before. There was never the opportunity."

"I guess it's better than nothing." Akemi sat back down slowly, still shaken and feeling sick to her stomach. "So... I have to find these people, right? I have to get to them before the Multitude does. And then I have to wait for the Spectres to come and take out the shard. And when we find Guardian Luna, she can put the soul back, but until then, all I can do is stop the Multitude getting the shard. And then at some point, I have to get the other shards back, and then _maybe_ we might be able to save all the people who've already been targeted. Is... is that everything?"

"It is," said Sakaki, with only the slightest pause. "I am sorry to lay it all out for you so starkly. I have been calling, as I called to you, but thus far no other Guardian has followed the call, and I sense that the Spectres are gathering already to target another bright soul. I told you before that the Spectres mistook you for their prey, didn't I?"

Akemi nodded.

"They cannot distinguish between a shard bearer and a potential Guardian. It may be that the person they are now pursuing is an ally - whether Guardian Luna or another - and so it is doubly important that you find them before the Multitude does."

"How will I know if it's a shard bearer or a Guardian?"

"I will know, once you get close enough to them. And it may be that you will know, too. You may recognise them - recognise the power in them, I mean."

"Okay. So where do I find this... bright soul?"

"It moves about, of course, but mostly I sense it south of here and a little east, perhaps an hour on foot..."

Akemi groaned. Sakaki's directions were... a problem. She'd spent more time finding some of the Spectre haunts than it had taken to clear them out.

"Hang on," she said, "I'll get the map out..."

* * *

Akemi watched the girl on the other side of the park as closely as she could without being obvious, although so far the girl hadn't seemed to notice her, even in her Guardian colours. She'd been following her since the end of school, and then it had turned out the girl was meeting her boyfriend, so this was now _really_ awkward for Akemi. She tried not to look too hard at them as they sat on the bench. The sun was slowly setting. She kept glancing at the shadows, looking for any hint of movement, and at the other people walking through the park, looking for cracks in the mask.

She stole another look at the girl, smiling at her date with an elegance that made her look older than her high school uniform indicated. She had very long, straight black hair cut in a classic style, and she wore just a touch of makeup that gave her features depth. Akemi had felt sure, when she first saw her, that this _had_ to be Guardian Luna. She just _looked_ like a moon... goddess, or something. But Sakaki said no, this was a shard bearer.

She was frowning now, replying with obvious surprise and irritation to something her boyfriend had said. Whatever he said next only deepened the frown. She asked him a couple of short, sharp questions which he seemed to fumble, then she abruptly stood up and began to walk away.

Just as she reached the next bench, the sun dipped below the horizon. The long shadows lying over the park grew impossibly longer... and then they reached out, with sharp-tipped fingers, towards the girl.

"Look out!" Akemi shouted before she could stop herself.

Not that it mattered. The girl turned when she heard the shout, but froze at the sight of the rising darkness. She seemed too shocked even to scream. She took a shaky step backwards, and a Spectre slipped from behind a tree and caught her as if it were a dance they'd rehearsed in advance. She did scream, then, but more Spectres rose around her, and not all of these had bothered to take on human forms. Some of them were... things out of nightmares... with many spindly legs, like an insect, and many sharp teeth, like a shark.

Akemi couldn't see the knife. But she heard the girl scream again, and suddenly she remembered the first time they'd attacked her, and that faint glow that had meant someone was watching, someone who hadn't even tried to help. She didn't know if the girl could see her, but it didn't matter. It didn't matter at all, and neither did Sakaki's warnings. What was the point of her, if she couldn't protect people?

"I call upon the sun, my liege, bright lord of the day. Grant me the power to overcome the dark!"

Flames roared around the girl, seizing the Spectres and burning them like kindling. The one holding onto her tried to stand its ground, but a whip-crack of fire sent it stumbling back. The girl crouched down, arms over her head and sobbing, as afraid of the fire as she was of the Spectres.

Akemi dashed forward and flung more fire at the rising shadows.

"Leave her alone!"

There were a lot of them... a lot more than had attacked Akemi either time. Every time she withered a few of them away, more slipped in from the growing dusk. She needed to get the girl out of here, to somewhere brightly lit and full of people, but she couldn't take her attention off the Spectres for a second...

Suddenly the boy from earlier dashed through the flames and grabbed the girl by the arm, hauling her to her feet. He shot Akemi one wide-eyed look of disbelief, then dragged the girl past her and ran with her back towards the park entrance. 

A surge of relief went through Akemi. She threw out both hands and made a huge wall of flame in a straight line between the Spectres and the entrance. She could hear dry grass crackling. Was the park on fire? The flames she created never seemed to cause as much damage as they should for their size, but things did start to smoke if she wasn't careful. She pushed the wall towards the Spectres, and took a little sliver of satisfaction in seeing them fall over themselves trying to get away. She just had to hold them off for long enough--

Behind her, the girl screamed. It wasn't like the way she'd screamed when the Spectres had first appeared. She screamed like her heart was being torn out of her... or her soul.

_No..._

Akemi turned and ran towards the sound. Out of the park and around the corner, she almost ran straight past the alley but the girl managed one last gasp of terror, and she turned...

The girl was on her knees, hands clasped to her chest as if to protect it, but she couldn't stop what was happening. The boy stood in front of her, and in his outstretched hand was the obsidian knife, pointed at her heart. The knife was glowing with a pale iridescence that turned Akemi's stomach, and so was the girl. Between her heart and the knife was a line of glowing light with a single bright bead at the mid-point between the girl and boy.

 _"No!"_ screamed Akemi, charging forward, but even as she took her first step, the girl's eyes rolled back in her head and she fell forward limply. The bead of light flashed brilliantly and hardened, and the boy took a smooth step forward and caught it as it fell out of the air.

Then he dodged Akemi, not all that gracefully, but effectively, jumped over the girl's motionless body, and... stopped, looking at Akemi with narrowed eyes.

"You're it?" he said. "Really? What a let down."

Akemi felt sick and like she might cry but there was no way she was going to let him know either of those things.

"Who are you?" she managed to choke out. "How could you do that to your own girlfriend?"

The boy scowled. "She isn't my girlfriend. She's dating this loser I'm pretending to be. Turns out she's a stuck up bitch, anyway."

"Pretending to--" Then Akemi saw that the edges of him were vague, and the definition on his face was blurring. "You're a Spectre!"

The boy - or whatever he was - looked appalled.

"As _if._ Who do you think you're talking to, anyway? Everyone said _you_ were dangerous, but you're just some girl in a stupid costume." He looked her up and down. "You could at least have ditched the tights and shown some cleavage."

Up until then Akemi had been off balance. Now she was back to being very, very angry.

"Give me the shard," she snarled. Fire sprang up around her unbidden; she couldn't have kept it in if she tried. "Give it to me, or I'll burn you to ashes, whether you're a Spectre or not."

He took a step backwards, the arrogance faltering for just a moment. Then he recovered himself and held up something that glittered in the fire light.

"This? You want it? Come and get it!"

He leapt upwards with inhuman speed, carried on a fountain of black shadow, and Akemi heard the thud as he landed on the roof of one of the buildings. Akemi threw herself at the fire escape and hauled herself onto the lower platform, then raced up the stairs. The guy was running over the roof, and his disguise seemed to be giving out. It was as if he was covered in clinging shreds of shadow that had once held the likeness of the boy he'd been imitating. Akemi sped after him.

She was catching up when he glanced over his shoulder, spat a curse, and snapped his fingers. Suddenly the shadows around Akemi swelled into the form of more Spectres, grabbing for her with human hands and inhuman claws. She stumbled as she fought them off, sending bright arcs of flame into their midst, but now the other guy was getting away...

Another shadow detached itself from the darkness behind a water tank. It moved swiftly, but without the creepy fluidity of the Spectres. The guy Akemi was chasing was too busy looking back at her to see it coming, but Akemi saw the figure resolve into a man, dressed in dark clothing, with a faint blue glow near his eyes. She would have shouted, but she didn't have time before he rushed the guy she was chasing and tackled him to the ground.

Akemi sent the rest of the Spectres fleeing with another burst of fire and raced towards them both. She saw the second man leap back with something glittering in his hand. The first swore at him and thrust his hands forward, sending spears of blackness shooting out with deadly accuracy, but his opponent leaped aside faster than should have been possible. Akemi seized on the distraction and blasted the first man with a gout of flame that made him shriek and fall back. He looked wildly between the two of them, swore again, and seemed to wrap himself in a wave of shadow that carried him over the edge of the rooftop.

Akemi drew a shaky breath and turned to say, "Thank y--"

But the other man was also gone. Akemi spun wildly, trying to see where he'd disappeared to, but there was no sign of him at all. 

"Hey!" she yelled. "Wait, where did you--"

And then it hit her all at once that he had the shard.

"Get back here! Give it back! That's someone's _soul_ , you can't... you can't just..."

The words trailed off into silence, unanswered. Akemi ran to the edge of the roof and looked down for the man who'd taken the shard in the first place, but he, too, was gone without a trace. Even the Spectres had slipped away into the cracks, and she was alone on the roof. She hadn't been able to save the girl. She hadn't even been able to bring back the shard like Sakaki had told her to.

She would have sat down and cried, except she remembered the girl, lying face-down in the alley.

She was back at ground level in a handful of minutes. The girl was still lying there. Akemi knelt beside her, biting her lip. What were you supposed to do? You weren't supposed to pick people up, were you? But that was for if they'd been in an accident and might have broken bones. She tried to roll the girl over, and flinched from the dead weight of her. Was she... was she actually breathing? Her skin felt cold. Akemi kind of grabbed her and hauled her over onto her back, which was definitely not in any first aid manual, but she could at least see the girl's chest rise and fall. The tracks of tears were still on her cheeks. Akemi realised suddenly that the girl was _younger_ than her, though she'd appeared so mature and composed in the park.

She could feel the ripple of energy from the medallion. Sakaki wanted her to check in. But right now she couldn't bear to speak to Sakaki. Shame, grief, horror, and fury were threatening to tear her apart. She needed to get this girl to a hospital, but what could they do? Nothing, and Akemi could do nothing without the shard...

She wrapped her arms around the girl, and held her like a sister, and sobbed.

* * *

"I couldn't save her."

"I told you there was no way--"

"I _know_!" Akemi didn't even try to keep her voice down. She'd been huddled next to Sakaki for so long she felt like she'd gone numb all over, but finally some sort of life was coming back into her body and mind. "I know, I know, I know! But you don't understand! I... she was just... it isn't _fair_!"

Sakaki's leaves rustled overhead.

"No," she said. "It isn't. I'm sorry."

There was a long silence. Finally, Sakaki said, carefully, "You said you encountered opposition this time? Tell me about them."

"There were... um, two of them." Akemi dashed a hand across her eyes, even though the tears had long since dried up. "The first one... had the knife, the black one. He had some sort of control over the Spectres."

"An Archduke, no doubt. Did you get a good look at him?"

"Yes, but..." Akemi shivered. "He didn't look like himself, I think. He said he was pretending to be that girl's boyfriend. After he took the shard, the disguise started to... break down."

"Hmm. He has the power to steal another's shadow, then, and take on their form for a time. I have known others with such an ability."

"What-- what happens to the person whose shadow he steals?"

"Nothing," Sakaki said with reassuring certainty. "They feel strange, cold shivers and a prickling on the back of their neck as if someone were watching them. It goes away as soon as he releases the shadow."

"Oh. Good." 

It wasn't much comfort, though. Soon that poor boy was going to find out, if he hadn't already, that his girlfriend was in hospital and wouldn't wake up. And if she did wake up - no, Akemi thought firmly, _when_ she woke up, when they got her shard back - she would remember him _attacking_ her... how could they get past that? He would have no explanation, no idea what she was talking about, and would she even believe her own memories of the shadows and the knife? Would he be arrested if she woke up afraid of him?

"And the other?" Sakaki prompted, breaking the depressing train of thought. "You said there was another?"

"Yeah..." Akemi scowled. "I've seen him before. He was there in the park when I was first attacked by Spectres."

"What? There was an Archduke there when you were attacked? You didn't say--"

"I didn't know! I'd almost forgotten about it until I saw that blue light again. The first time, he seemed to be hiding from the Spectres." She clenched her fists. "He didn't help me then. This time, he showed up just when I was chasing the... the Archduke over the roof. He took the shard and vanished."

"Describe him." There was a sharpness in Sakaki's voice. "Everything you can remember."

"I don't know, it was dark... he didn't have the, um, the shadow thing going on like the first guy. He just looked... he looked like a normal sort of person, wearing dark clothing, except he had this thing over his eyes... like sunglasses, only it glowed - blue, like a computer screen."

"A glass visor," Sakaki said darkly. "And he got away with the shard?"

"Yes." Akemi was still smarting from that. "I didn't even see where he went, it was like he vanished into thin air."

"No doubt."

"Is he another Archduke? Why would he steal the shard if they're on the same side?"

"Infighting in the Multitude is not unheard of," Sakaki said. "He may also be an Archduke, or... well, there may be some other human allies of the Multitude who have... other abilities. Perhaps they do not all want to follow the Archdukes."

"Archdukes... as in, more than one, right?" Akemi frowned. "The first guy said something... like people had been talking about me." 

Sakaki made a noise like she was hissing through teeth that didn't exist. Small dead leaves in her branches rattled.

"What?"

"That suggests that there are indeed multiple Archdukes working together," Sakaki said. "I had hoped there might be only one, or two, by now, or that they might not be so cohesive... Sol, you must be very careful."

"I think they're scared of me," Akemi replied with a grim smile. "He said they think I'm dangerous."

"They are _wary_ of you," Sakaki corrected sharply. "They are not afraid. Not yet. You have much to learn about your power and you are without allies. You must be very careful. Even abandon the shards if you must, to protect yourself until we find more Guardians."

Akemi sighed and leaned her head back against Sakaki's trunk. It must be late, she realised. After she'd called an ambulance for the girl she should have gone home, or called her mother, but... she'd come here, instead. She was in for so much trouble when she did go home. She couldn't bring herself to care.

"Will we find them soon?" she asked softly.

"I am calling to them," Sakaki replied. "But... not everyone is as eager as you to answer the call."


	4. The Rising Moon

The shadows were too dark. That was the only way Shoichi could describe it. Every day this week he'd found himself hurrying, almost running, to the station. The shadows were too dark, and they seethed with silent menace. Even in daylight he felt as though they were blacker and deeper than they should be… as if stepping into them would be like walking into a cave. He avoided the worst of them, and rushed through the others, and all the time he wondered what the hell he was doing, what kind of madness had taken hold of him.

It had started with the dreams, he thought, as he approached the station and and increased his pace towards its bright lights. Weird dreams, horrible dreams… things he couldn't exactly remember, except there always seemed to be someone calling him, and somehow that unknown voice filled him with terror. He ran from it until darkness rose like a tide and swallowed him up, and he woke gasping.

Relief washed over him as he stepped inside the station concourse. Here, at least, there weren't many dark corners. The train home would be all right as well. At the other end… he'd have to walk fast, that was all. And maybe he should come home before dark for a while. It would mean missing extra study and his clubs, but maybe it was worth it. Maybe, the logical side of his brain pointed out, it would help - maybe the dreams were coming from stress, and this new fear of the dark was coming from the dreams…

Then he saw the girl, and felt himself tense again. There was nothing particularly sinister about her… except he _kept_ seeing her. She was hard to miss with that bright red hair, and she kept turning up wherever he went. Any other time, he might have assumed she was plotting to ambush him and ask him out - something that had actually happened to Shoichi once, to his extreme embarrassment - but not this week. Not when looking at her made him think of the dreams, and the sense of dread that had been following him night and day.

He'd been trying to pretend he didn't notice her, but today something snapped. He stopped walking and glared at her. She appeared absorbed in reading a magazine, but sure enough, after a moment she glanced in his direction.

Their eyes met. The girl froze, clearly not expecting him to be looking back at her. She turned as red as her hair, dropped her gaze, and turned away to rummage violently through her bag. She was so forceful she managed to knock it off her own shoulder, whereupon it promptly upended itself onto the floor, spilling its contents everywhere. Shoichi could just about hear her swearing as she knelt down and started hurriedly trying to scoop everything back in. 

He realised this was his chance, and walked quickly to the ticket gates, resisting the urge to look back over his shoulder. Although to be honest, he wasn't finding her nearly as alarming now he'd seen her throw her school stuff all over the station floor. As he stepped onto the train that was about to depart, he even wondered if he'd been right the first time, if she was just a random schoolgirl with a crush. Or just another person staring at his blond hair, thinking he was an exchange student or a tourist, even though he'd lived in Japan all his life…

The carriage wasn't packed, but the seats were all taken, so he grabbed a strap and leaned against the wall as the train pulled out of the station. He tried not to think about shadows, or dreams. He should be concentrating on the next exam, anyway. As he started reminding himself what he needed to study, his eyes strayed over the other passengers, until a jolt of recognition stopped him short. Wasn't that…?

The guy was looking back at him, with an expression that suggested he was having the same thought. It had been, what, two years? He'd grown his hair out a bit, which was… a _really_ good look on him, and Shoichi had never seen him out of school uniform before, but all the same, there couldn't be any doubt. And now they'd stared at each other for long enough that it was _just_ starting to get awkward, and Shoichi had the choice of flashing a quick smile and otherwise ignoring the guy, or saying something. 

It wasn't a hard choice.

"Satoru?"

Just for a moment, Satoru's face was blank, as if he didn't recognise Shoichi after all, or didn't want to speak to him… but then he smiled, and it was like a passing cloud had drifted away.

"Shoichi?" Satoru moved down the carriage to where he was standing. "How are you doing? It's been a long time."

"Yes, hasn't it?" Shoichi couldn't help smiling back. "I'm fine. How are you?"

"Oh… fine." It sounded a little forced, but Satoru moved on quickly. "You must be coming close to entrance exams, right?"

"Yes. The teachers are all, um…"

"Cracking the whip?"

Shoichi laughed. "Yes, something like that." 

"You'll get through it. Amazingly, it turns out there is life on the other side."

He was going for light-hearted, but there was still something in his voice that was off… like he knew it was true for others, but not for him. Shoichi wanted to ask if everything was okay, but that would be way too familiar, right? They hadn't really known each other well in school. They ran into each other sometimes in clubs, and for the year before Satoru left, they'd seen each other in the library daily, but… something had always stopped Shoichi from trying to start a real friendship. He realised all at once that he'd been regretting the missed opportunity.

"So are you visiting family?" Shoichi said after a moment. Satoru looked confused, and he elaborated, "I mean, you're back from Tokyo right now?"

At that, Satoru's expression faltered into something painful for just a second before he schooled his features into blankness. "Oh. No, I… didn't go to Tokyo in the end. I'm studying here in Osaka."

Shoichi was too surprised to stop himself from blurting out, "But you made it into the University of Tokyo! You had the highest score in the year!"

Satoru looked away, staring out of the window as if something about the passing tracks fascinated him. "I changed my mind. I decided it wasn't for me." Before Shoichi could ask any more questions, he went on quickly, "What about you? Where are you applying?"

"Oh… well… a few places…" He hesitated. "Actually, Tokyo is one of them." He didn't say that there had been a tiny part of him hoping he might run into Satoru again there. "I mean, if I get a good enough score."

"I'm sure you would," Satoru said at once. "And it's a great place, you'd love it. Especially if you want to study sciences, they have some of the best labs in the country. The campus is amazing, too."

He seemed to light up as he spoke, shaking off the emotions that had gripped him before, and Shoichi was struck by the incongruence, by how warmly he spoke of a place he claimed hadn't suited him. He wanted to ask Satoru what had really happened, why he'd ended up staying in Osaka, but he didn't want to bring back that painful look to Satoru's eyes. More than anything, in fact, he wanted to see if he could make Satoru laugh, so he plunged into other topics, like the ongoing rivalry between Toshida the chemistry teacher and Ando the English teacher, and the way things had changed - or hadn't - at their school in two years. He didn't quite get his wish, but Satoru was smiling, at least, by the time they were approaching Shoichi's stop. Shoichi made up his mind to do something he should have done back in school.

"Could I… get your email address?" he asked as the train began to slow for the station. "I mean, I'd like to stay in touch…"

"Yes, of course." The swiftness of Satoru's response banished any worries Shoichi had about asking. "I'd like that."

They just had time to scribble addresses on a hastily torn page from Shoichi's notebook before he had to dive off the train, turning to wave as he left. Satoru waved back as the train pulled out, and Shoichi carefully folded the paper and slipped it into his wallet before he headed for home.

For the first time in days, he barely noticed the shadows.

* * *

"That was _so_ embarrassing," Akemi hissed into the medallion. She hadn't been able to make it to the train in time to catch up with the shard bearer, so now she was pacing on the platform waiting impatiently for the next one. "He was looking right at me! He'll probably call the police if he sees me again!"

_"Then don't let him see you again."_

"Ugh. I don't think I'm cut out for this stuff." Akemi checked the departure display. "Eight more minutes… what if he gets attacked while I'm stuck here?"

_"I do not believe it will be tonight. For the obsidian knife to extract a shard, it must build a resonance with the soul it seeks. That is why they stalk their prey for some time before striking."_

Akemi stopped pacing and glared at the medallion.

"You couldn't have mentioned that before? I've been thinking all week it could happen any second!"

_"I did not want you to become complacent."_

"There's a difference between 'complacent' and 'not spending every free second watching some boy I've never met'…"

Just then her phone rang. Akemi tensed as she reached for it. Her mother not yet forgiven her for being so late back the night she'd found the first shard bearer. But when she checked the screen, it was Hana's name, so she flipped the medallion closed and answered the phone.

"Where the heck are you?" Hana said. She sounded annoyed.

"Huh?"

"I've been sitting here almost thirty minutes!"

"Sitting where-- oh my gosh!" Akemi stopped dead. "I'm so sorry! I'll be right there!"

Hana was laughing, the irritation gone. "Akemi, did you forget and just go home or something?"

"No! I mean, yes! I mean…" She was moving as she talked, hurrying down the steps and over to the other platform. "Sorry. It's been… the last couple of weeks have been really…"

She didn't know how to finish that sentence.

"Yeah, I've hardly seen you," Hana said after a moment. "Are you okay? If you don't want to go to the movie…"

"No, I do! I'll come find you, I can be there in…" She checked the station clock. "… fifteen minutes, we can grab something to eat and we'll be able to make it in before the trailers finish, I promise."

"Okay. How about I order for you so it's ready when you arrive?"

"Thank you," Akemi said with feeling. Hana laughed, and hung up, and Akemi jumped onto the train that had just arrived heading back into the city.

She found a quiet corner and opened the medallion again.

"Sakaki, you're really sure he's okay for tonight?"

_"Yes, I think so -- why?"_

"I forgot I'm supposed to be seeing a movie with Hana. I can't let her down."

_"I had thought you might use this time to investigate another Spectre haunt,"_ Sakaki said. Before Akemi could protest, though, she seemed to catch herself. _"I'm sorry, Sol, that isn't fair, is it? It should be safe enough for you to spend the evening with your friend. I will not attempt to contact you unless there is some sort of emergency, so if you sense me calling…"_

"I'll know I have to answer. Thanks, Sakaki."

Akemi closed the medallion and tucked it away. How could she have forgotten about this evening? They'd been waiting for this movie to come out for over six months. They'd booked tickets in advance as their reward for getting through the start of the school year. Up until a few weeks ago, it had been one of the most important things in Akemi's immediate future.

And now… even with Sakaki's encouragement, she felt guilty. She thought of the boy who'd taken the train in the other direction, of the way he'd stared her down like it was a challenge, and the way he'd fled like he was afraid. Before long he would be lying in a hospital bed like the other girl, and there wasn't a damn thing she could do about it except try to get hold of his shard before the Multitude did. Even if he was safe tonight, it seemed so wrong for her to carry on as normal, try to have _fun_ even, when his life was ticking down and he didn't even know it…

She rested her head against the window and closed her eyes. At least Hana would be there. Maybe… she should tell Hana what was going on. If she didn't believe it, Akemi could transform and show her. She could take her to meet Sakaki. Then at least it wouldn't be so lonely and strange…

… and then Hana too would carry the burden of the souls Akemi could not save.

Akemi took a deep breath, and began to practice acting normal. She tried to push away every thought except for thinking about eating her burger and watching the movie.

It wasn't too much to ask for just one evening off, was it?

* * *

Shoichi dreamed of the sound of the sea.

Later, he'd realise how strange that was. He'd never lived by the sea, not the kind of sea that rose and fell with a soothing, ever-changing roar against beaches and rocky shores. He should have had no idea what it sounded like, but in the dream, he knew it by heart, and it was _home_ , the most comforting, familiar sound he could imagine.

His feet were bare on cool stone as he hurried through rooms and hallways with high ceilings and carved columns. The walls were painted with murals depicting a long history, but it was too dark to read them. He needed to find a light.

Behind him, as he left each room, shadows seeped up out of the gaps between the flagstones and covered the floor like ink. All he could do was hurry blindly through the next door and hope it contained some source of light. But it seemed as though every candle, every lantern, every spark had been extinguished, and there was no end to the rooms, no end to the rising of the tide of darkness…

"Shadows fear the blazing sun," said a voice. 

Terror drove him ever faster through rooms and halls and rooms again until suddenly he was outside, running through a cool night towards the sound of the sea. There was no sun in the sky overhead; not even the stars could be seen. He reached a stone balustrade and stopped, seeing that beyond it was only air and a drop to the waves below. He turned. It was too dark to see the building he'd just fled, but knew in his heart that the shadows were welling out of every window and door. There was no escape.

"Shadows flee the rising moon," said a voice.

Silver light streamed past him. The shadows, seeping forth as he'd known they would, flinched back, and fled. Shoichi spun to see the full moon hanging in the sky, the last wisps of cloud billowing away from its remorseless light. Beneath it, the sea was as still as a mirror, and words seemed to hang in the air…

"I call upon the moon, my liege," he whispered… and then the sea shattered, the world shattered, a thousand echoes of breaking glass pierced him like a song for the dead, and he didn't even have time to scream…

… before he woke, the tears still sliding down his cheeks.

* * *

The red-haired girl was at the station again the next day. This time she wasn't in her school uniform; she seemed to be wearing what was either a dance outfit or cosplay. Probably the latter, going by the gloves and boots. Still shaken from the latest dream, Shoichi decided enough was enough, and walked straight up to her.

"Why are you following me?"

She jumped like he'd shouted. "Wh-- what?"

"You're always here at the station, and on the train, too! I saw you by my _house_ the other day." Shoichi hadn't realised he was angry until now. "Why are you following me?"

She was staring at him with her mouth wide open. It wasn't the reaction Shoichi had expected.

"You… you're not supposed to recognise me," she stammered after a moment. Then she seemed to pull herself together. "I mean… it can't have been me you saw before. This is the first time I've followed you like this. I mean, _at all_. I mean, I'm not following you--"

"Cut it out. Is this a prank? I'm tired of it," Shoichi snapped. Was she for real? She couldn't really think she was that sneaky, could she? "And of course it was you, you dropped your bag yesterday, remember?" He looked at the - costume? - she was wearing. "If that's supposed to be a disguise, you probably should have gone with a mask, or--"

"It usually works," said the girl in confusion. She nervously put her hand up to a locket or something that was hanging around her neck. "Um. Sorry. I'm following you because I'm trying to help."

… and now he was just thrown completely off balance. "What?"

"Well, there are these… shadows," she said, and Shoichi felt cold wash through him. "They're called Spectres. And they're following you, so I'm following you too--"

Shoichi took a step backwards, shaking his head even as his heart began to pound. "Okay, so it _is_ a prank, fine, just stop--"

"It's not--"

"Just leave me alone!"

He should have made a dash for the ticket machine, but sheer panic took over and drove him back out of the station and onto the street. He heard the girl shouting after him, then giving chase. Seriously? She was going to _chase_ him now? Was she crazy? Maybe he should be going to the police, maybe she wasn't a harmless prankster after all…

She was faster then him and caught up before he could figure out where he was going.

"Wait-- just _wait_ a second, would you?" She grabbed him by the arm and yanked him painfully to a stop. "Please! I don't want you to get hurt."

There was something about the way she said it, a miserable note in her voice, that convinced him all at once that he really _could_ get hurt.

"Who _are_ you?"

"Huh?" She blinked. "Oh, I-- I'm Guardian Sol."

It was Shoichi's turn to blink. "Guardian…"

"Sol." She grinned sheepishly. "It means 'sun', apparently."

_Shadows fear the blazing sun,_ whispered the dream voice in his memory.

Before he could reply, she put her hand up to the locket again. "Hang on, I need to talk to Sakaki, she's trying to reach me--"

Behind her, the shadows rose, just as they had in the dream. Shoichi was frozen for precious seconds as darkness took form in a way that should be impossible, but struck a terrifying note of familiarity in his memory. This was _more_ than a dream, it was…

"Look out!" 

He seized her arm and tried to drag her out of the way, but he was too slow, much too slow: long, sharp talons shot out of the rising shadows straight for them. There was no way to dodge.

_I call upon the moon, my liege,_ whispered the dream in the back of Shoichi's mind, and he threw out his free hand palm first. Barely inches away from them, the needle-sharp tendrils slammed into a shimmering wall and were flung back. They made no sound, but from the way they reared up like snakes, Shoichi could easily imagine them hissing menacingly.

The shining wall flickered and vanished. Sol tore free of his grip and spun towards him, mouth open in shock, while Shoichi stared at his hand, which began to shake.

"How did you…" Sol breathed, and then understanding came over her face like a sunrise. "You're a _Guardian._ You're like me! But…" She was laughing now, delighted and disbelieving at the same time. "But you're a _boy_! How does that even work? I thought…"

"I don't… I…" Shoichi took a step backwards, but there was no escape. The shadows had pooled all around them. The street was eerily deserted. There were forms sliding out of the darkness, and the shadow serpents were uncoiling… "They're coming back!"

The shadows lunged again, but this time, even in the middle of her amazement, Sol was ready for them. A fountain of flame spilled from her hands and scorched clear the area in front of them. She spun and sent fire racing in all directions. The shadows tumbled back from it; those that did not escape caught alight and burned like paper. But there were more behind them, darkness in the form of unfolding wings…

"Do that shield thing again!" Sol shouted.

"I don't know how!"

"There are words, like…" She dodged a shadow creature, kicking it as she went past. It was hard to tell if her foot struck anything solid, but the beast recoiled. "For me, it's, 'I call upon the sun, my liege--'" 

She threw a fireball into a dense cluster of shadows. It rolled like a bowling ball through them. Shoichi was pretty sure fire wasn't supposed to do that, but hey, nothing else about this made any sense at all. 

"Wait, it'll be different for you, but I don't know which Guardian you are…"

_Shadows fear the blazing sun. Shadows flee the rising moon. I call upon the moon, my liege…_

It wasn't just his hand that was shaking any more. Shoichi felt as though his whole body was going to come apart with the tremors. He was frozen in shock and disbelief, but… no. It wasn't disbelief, was it? Not really. He wanted it to be disbelief, he was clinging to the idea that this was impossible, that he should be unable to accept it, but…

… but the truth was, there was nowhere to run anymore. He was out of time. The dreams had caught up with him and he had to choose between fear of the dark and fear of…this.

On shadow tendril whipped past Sol's fire and lashed out at him. Shoichi stumbled backwards, but the razor-wire darkness sliced across his cheek and he felt blood trickle down towards his jaw. The silent shadows seemed to mock him, and at last, Shoichi had a target for the formless anger that had been building within him.

"I call upon the moon, my liege," he said, the words falling easily into place as though he'd memorised them long ago, "radiant queen of the night." A brilliant, ice-cold light flared all around him. "Grant me the power to turn back the dark!"

This time the shield was bright and strong, gleaming with the light of a full moon, and the shadows spilled against it like a breaking wave. Sol stared at the shield, and then at him, and then seemed to shake herself.

"Okay, my turn!"

The shield apparently didn't stop her from conjuring more flames outside. This time, with the shield protecting them both from the fire, Sol seemed to pour a lot more power into it. The street outside their protected circle became a roaring inferno, so bright it was almost as white as the shield. The shadows could not scream, but as they twisted and shrivelled in the flames, Shoichi took a grim satisfaction in their dying agony.

Then the flames ebbed away. The light faded from the shield, and the street slid back into darkness… but a normal darkness, one empty of threat. Empty of witnesses, too. Somehow no-one had come down the street while it was happening, no-one had seen…

Except the man getting to his feet some distance away, a cloak of darkness slipping from his shoulders like water. He looked deeply disconcerted, but not, Shoichi thought, because he didn't believe what he was seeing. He looked more like someone who had just had an unpleasant shock and hadn't quite had time to recover.

"What the _hell_ was that?" he demanded.

Sol's eyes narrowed. "You again? Is that your real face this time?"

"Of course not," the man spat. He backed away from them, looking from one to the other. "You know I'll just come back for him, right? You can't protect him forever. You might as well just--"

"I would _love_ to see you come back for him," Sol said with a wide, wild grin. Shoichi wondered if she was, in fact, as crazy as he'd first suspected. "Go on. Try it. Pretty please."

The man opened his mouth but seemed not to know what to say. He took another step backwards. He was afraid of them, Shoichi realised. Sol seemed to see it too. All at once, a stream of flame spilled down the street towards him. The man yelped, dodged, and took off running. As he ran, he wrapped the shadows around him again, and slipped into the darkness, gone before either of them could have thought of pursuit.

There was a long drawn-out moment of silence. Then Sol whooped gleefully and threw her arms around Shoichi in a hug that smelled faintly of charcoal. Shoichi was in too much shock to do more than stand there and let her.

"That was amazing! I'm so glad I found you! Um, listen, about the costume, I'm sure yours will be--"

"That building's on fire," Shoichi said distantly, looking over her shoulder. "Quite a lot, actually."

"Wait, what?" Sol let go and twisted to look. "Oh no… that's not supposed to happen!"

"The fire isn't supposed to set things on fire?"

"No-- well, yes-- but it's never happened before--" Sol turned back to him desperately. "Can you do water? Is that your thing?"

Shoichi stared back at her. Finally, he said, "No, I don't think so."

"Crap." Sol ran over to the building, which was definitely alight now, and reached out towards it as if calming an angry creature. "Maybe I can… get the flames to just… stop…"

Shoichi watched her for long enough to establish that nothing was happening, then put a hand in his pocket and took out his phone. He called the fire department, reported the blaze, and confirmed that he didn't think there was anyone in the building. By the time he was done, Sol had stopped… fire-whispering, or whatever, and was standing there with her mouth open.

"They'll be here in three minutes," Shoichi said. "The fire station's right around the corner."

"Why didn't I think of that?" Sol asked. She shook herself. "We should go. I need to bring you to Sakaki."

She grabbed his arm again and this time he let her lead him back towards the station.

"Who's Sakaki?"

"Um… that's kind of hard to explain. I think I'd better just show you. You probably wouldn't believe me if I told you."

* * *

Out of everything that was wrong with the scene he found himself in, Shoichi kept coming back to the clock. It was hanging from the branch of a tree. It was also upside down and inside a plastic sandwich bag.

Of course, there was also the fact that the tree was talking to him, but somehow, the clock was bothering him more.

"It's so Sakaki knows what time it is," Sol said when he asked. "Otherwise things get confusing."

"But… why the bag?"

"So it doesn't get wet in the rain and stop working."

"And… why is it the wrong way up?"

"That was the only way I could get it to stay in place. It's not like it makes a difference to her."

"My sight of the world is different from yours," Sakaki said. "As is my sense of time."

So… the tree was talking to him. Maybe, in hindsight, he should have kept wondering about the clock. It seemed like the safer option.

Shoichi looked at the object Sakaki had invited him to take from her branches. It was black from age, but clearly the same size and shape as the crest that Sol was wearing around her neck. He could see a faint hint of blue beneath the grime. Sol had started babbling about stepping through doors or something, but Sakaki had gently suggested she let him get used to the idea first.

"You didn't exactly give me time to 'get used to the idea'," Sol complained.

"You were being attacked by Spectres. Besides, you two are quite different."

"I don't see how you can know that already."

"It's as clear as night and day," said Sakaki serenely. "Appropriately, since this is Guardian Luna."

Sol took a deep breath, like suddenly everything was different. 

"Ohhhh," she said. She almost looked like she might cry, but if so, it was with relief. "So now we can… we can save them?"

"Yes."

Shoichi decided it was time he took a more active part in the conversation. "Save who?"

"The shard bearers," said Sol. "Like I thought you were, before you did that thing with the light." She frowned. "Wait, Sakaki, didn't you say we'd know if it was another Guardian?"

"I _did_ know," Sakaki replied with mild exasperation. "I sensed it as soon as you spoke to each other. I tried to contact you, but you didn't answer."

"Hey, I was busy chasing him! And then there were Spectres!"

"And why exactly was he running away from you in the first place?"

"Uh..." Sol looked at Shoichi.

"I thought she was a crazy cosplay stalker," Shoichi offered.

It sounded rather weak when he said it aloud. He couldn't have put into words the rest of it, the fear and the desperate need to _run..._ He wasn't even sure he understood it himself now. Strange and unbelievable as all this was, somehow, the moment he'd called on the moon, the dread had vanished. Some wisp of something in the back of his mind had sighed with regret, and flown away, and in its place acceptance had blossomed.

"Oh, right," Sol jumped in. "That's the other thing - he _recognised_ me even after I was transformed! I thought that wasn't supposed to happen?"

"The magic that disguises you does not deceive the other members of the Guard," Sakaki said. "Which is another way to identify them, should the opportunity arise."

"That would have been useful to know," Sol said, but she was looking at Shoichi again. "Wait, 'crazy cosplay stalker'?"

"What else was I supposed to think?"

"Fair enough, I guess." Sol smiled. Then she put her hand up to the crest that hung around her neck, and suddenly there was a blinding light that Shoichi had turn his face away from. When he looked back, she was wearing her school uniform again. "Hi. I'm Akemi. Shimada Akemi. I'm sorry for stalking you, it was for your own good."

"Tsunekawa Shoichi. It's, uh, nice to meet you?"

"Sound less convinced, why don't you?" Sol - Akemi - said, but she was still smiling. "Um, look, I know this is all really weird and confusing but I'm... I'm really glad you're here."

The simple sincerity touched him, and felt... familiar. He couldn't explain why, but like the sound of the sea in his dream, this was... right.

"You've been fighting those things by yourself?"

"Yeah." Akemi leaned back on her hands, stretching her legs out with a sigh. "I mean, not for too long, really, just a few weeks, but..."

"Okay." Shoichi looked back at the blackened crest. "Can you explain it all from the beginning, please?"

She did, in the rushing, tumbling over herself way that seemed to be fairly normal for her, although Shoichi thought relief was playing a part in just how disorganised her explanation was. Sakaki stepped in once or twice to correct or clarify, but mostly let Akemi do the talking, at least until she got to the part about the shard bearers. Then Akemi faltered, and Sakaki quietly took over, outlining Akemi's first attempt to retrieve a shard. Shoichi noticed that there was no reproach in her account of Akemi's actions. Shoichi got the sense that she understood all two well how impossible it must have been for Akemi to stand by and watch.

"And she's just in hospital now?"

"Yeah," said Akemi softly. "She'll be okay as long as they look after her body, but her soul..."

"Is in the shard." Shoichi frowned. "So we need to get it back, and get her soul out of it. And you said I can do that?"

He looked at Sakaki for confirmation. Her branches dipped in what he was beginning to recognise as a nod.

"At least, I believe it may be possible," Sakaki said. "I am not sure if it has ever been tried, once the shard has been extracted. But you certainly have the ability to anchor souls at the moment the knife does its work, so I must hope that you can do something similar with those already removed."

Shoichi nodded. He had already, privately, made up his mind that no-one else was going to end up in the hospital, and that he was _not_ going to allow anything else to make Akemi so quiet and sad. It was painfully obvious that she wasn't supposed to be like that, ever. Of course, that meant figuring out how to do the thing Sakaki said he could do...

He held up the disc in his hand. "How do I use it?"

"It's sort of like stepping through--" Akemi began, but Sakaki interrupted.

"Close your eyes and remember the moon on the sea," she said.

A chill went through Shoichi, a ghost of the fear that had been haunting him all week, but it was brief, and he knew... he suddenly remembered that sensation from his dream. He stood up carefully, closed his eyes, and thought of the moon breaking through the clouds. Even with his eyes closed, the brilliance of the light that sprang up around him was palpable, and the rush that went through his body was like a gasp of breath taken in wonder at the sight of something astounding.

"Oh wow," said Akemi, "that looks even cooler from the outside!" She laughed, then went on, sheepishly, "And it doesn't look quite so much like a dress on you..."

Shoichi opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was the crest, now brilliant gold without a trace of tarnish. Inset in its face was a crescent moon in blue glass. He pressed the catch to open it, and looked into his own eyes in the mirror within for a moment before closing it again. Then he took a good look down at the rest of himself.

There was no denying it, the costume he was wearing wasn't really any different from Sol's, except in the colours. And although the main part of it could charitably be called a tunic, there was a certain... style to the rest of the outfit that was undeniably, well...

"You weren't kidding about the magical girl thing," he said with resignation.

Akemi started giggling helplessly. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to!" She jumped to her feet and grasped her crest. With a flash of light that Shoichi knew to look away from this time, she was back in her own Guardian colours. "It's not quite the same, is it, though?"

They spent a few minutes comparing costumes. The broad strokes were the same, but there were minor details that separated the two of them.

Shoichi peered at Akemi's hair. "Your ribbons changed colour."

"Huh?"

He pointed. "Your hair ribbons. Weren't they green a minute ago?"

Akemi put her hand up to where one pigtail was tied off. "They're always green for school."

"They're orange now."

Akemi tugged on the dangling end of the ribbon, unravelling the bow, and pulled it out of her hair. She stared at it with her mouth open.

"That is so weird."

Shoichi stifled laughter. "Weirder than everything else?"

"Yes!" Akemi waved the ribbon in front of his face. "Somehow this is weirder than everything else!"

Shoichi gave up trying not to laugh. Then, as Akemi moved to tie her hair back up, he had a thought.

"Wait, don't do that. Try transforming back without re-tying it."

"Why?"

"I want to see what happens. I mean, is it the same ribbon? Is it a new ribbon? What happened to the other ribbon?"

There was a sound from Sakaki's direction that was hard to interpret, until Shoichi recognised it as a snort of laughter. He wasn't sure how anyone could snort without a nose. Maybe that was why it had a sort of wooden sound to it.

"What?" he asked the tree.

"Nothing," she replied with barely contained amusement. "You are just being... very _you_ , Luna."

Shoichi was still trying to work out what on earth that was supposed to mean when the light of Akemi's transformation distracted him. When he looked back in her direction, the half of her hair that had been loose was re-tied with its green ribbon, and the orange one she'd been holding was gone.

Akemi put her empty hand up to her hair and said, "Weeeeeeeeeeeeeird."

"Okay," Shoichi said thoughtfully, "now try untying that one and transforming _back_..."

Several minutes later they had established that if Akemi untied her hair before transforming, the green ribbon did not vanish, but her hair was miraculously retied with the orange one. When she switched back to normal, her hair was still loose on that side. The green ribbon didn't seem to go anywhere when it wasn't attached. Shoichi was trying to work out the logistics of that ("Does this mean you can never change your hairstyle as Guardian Sol?") when Sakaki cleared her throat.

Well. Again, she didn't have a throat, but that was certainly what it sounded like.

"Perhaps we could return to discussing the shard bearers," she said gently, and still with that undercurrent of amusement. "There will be time for experimentation later."

Some of the bubbling curiosity that had been filling Shoichi drained away. "Oh. Of course. What do I need to do?"

"First, can you summon the shield?"

Shoichi held out his hand and concentrated. "I call upon the moon, my liege, radiant queen of the night," he said softly. "Grant me the power to turn back the dark."

A gleaming dome of light expanded around them like a soap bubble. Shoichi watched faint rainbow patterns wash across its surface, like the colours that haloed the full moon on a frozen night, and found he was smiling. He let the shield fade.

"That is _so_ pretty," Akemi said wistfully. "Sakaki, can I do anything else apart from set things on fire?"

"Not really."

"Oh."

Sakaki laughed. "Well, that isn't entirely true. You have other powers, but the flame runs through all of them."

"How do I do the other things?"

"The knowledge will come to you in time as you learn control."

Akemi pulled a dissatisfied face as Shoichi turned back to Sakaki.

"So do I use the shield on the shard bearers?"

"No, except to protect them from the Spectres and keep them out of the grasp of the Archdukes. The soul anchor is a different power." Sakaki rustled her leaves and sighed. "It is more complex. Ideally, it would come to you gradually, just as all Guardians slowly learn the full extent of their power. But with things as they are..."

"We can't wait around," Shoichi finished. "How do I learn it, then?"

"I... cannot teach you," Sakaki said quietly. "It is not a power I... fully understand. You must seek deep within yourself for the way to summon it."

Akemi was staring at her in dismay. "But-- I thought--"

"It has been described to me," Sakaki hurried on, "as casting out a line. I have seen... Guardian Luna in the past move his hand as if throwing something invisible. He has always called it an anchor, as if there is a weight to it that pins the soul in place, though he seems to throw it lightly, like spider silk."

Shoichi tried to wrap his head around the concept. He briefly tried seeking deep inside himself, but mostly what he found there was that he really, really needed to go home and think about all this for a while, while drinking a lot of soothing tea in his pyjamas. Under a blanket. Possibly with one of the stuffed toys from the box under his bed that he couldn't quite bring himself to throw out.

"I'll figure it out," he told Akemi with more confidence than he really felt. "I promise."

"Okay," she said quietly, then seemed to rally herself. "Hey, do you want to go get a soda or something?"

"Not right now. Right now I think I'm going to go home, if that's okay with everyone?"

"Sure," Akemi said. "You don't want to get your parents started asking where you've been, trust me."

"Well, that part isn't a problem," Shoichi said with only a faint grimace. "They don't pay much attention."

"Lucky you," Akemi said with a sigh. "My mom's usually working in the evenings but when she isn't..."

It wasn't the first time someone had said he was 'lucky' to have so little parental oversight. Shoichi hadn't often felt that way, but he supposed, in light of today's events, that he should be at least a little grateful.

"Shall I walk you to the station?"

"Huh? Oh, no, I live around here."

Shoichi paused, trying to remember the route they had taken to get to the shrine. It was a blur.

"Er.... can _you_ walk _me_ to the station?" he asked sheepishly.

Akemi jumped to her feet with a grin. "No problem."


	5. Fire and Shadow

Akemi peered around the corner towards the small gym tucked in at the bottom of an office block.

"I think this is the right place."

Shoichi was looking at the fold-out map of the city they'd been drawing tentative lines on to try and figure out where Sakaki was sending them.

"Looks like it. That or the funeral parlour..."

They exchanged a look that contained an entire popular culture's worth of thoughts about zombies.

"Let's try the gym first," Akemi said hurriedly.

"Good idea," agreed Shoichi.

They transformed before they approached the main entrance, which Akemi felt a bit strange about. But Shoichi had pointed out that if there were Spectres right there inside the door, they'd need to be ready - and they didn't want to risk the enemy seeing them transform. Akemi hadn't thought of that. 

She would have been glad of any company in dealing with the Multitude, but she was _especially_ glad that Shoichi was so... practical. And calm. Mostly. And didn't seem to have a problem with the costume. It had never occurred to her that Guardian Luna could be a boy, but now she'd met Shoichi, she couldn't imagine it any other way.

There weren't any Spectres inside the entrance, but they both stopped dead anyway. There were no lights on in the place. The reception area was dimly lit from the glass doors, but the hall that led deeper into the building was pitch black. There was a receptionist at the desk, but she was slumped in her chair as if unconscious... or dead. Sol's stomach flipped. She ran over to the woman, Luna a step behind.

"Hey! Hey, can you hear me?" Sol tried to take the woman's wrist to check for a pulse. To her surprise, the woman sleepily pulled away from her grasp, mumbling a protest before settling back into her chair. "Hello?"

There was no response. The receptionist seemed to be semi-conscious. Still, it was reassuringly different from the stillness and silence of the shard-bearer whose soul had been removed. Luna had opened his medallion and was giving Sakaki a quick summary of the situation.

Sol flipped her own crest open in time to hear Sakaki's reply.

 _"That is very strange,"_ Sakaki said slowly. _"I wonder... I think you should concentrate on finding and eliminating the Spectres. It must be their influence that is causing this."_

Just as she finished speaking, the almost-invisible door at the end of the dark corridor swung open and crashed against the wall. Sol jumped about a foot, and Luna made a noise that sounded suspiciously like a squeak. A man stumbled down the corridor towards them like a sleepwalker. Sol took a nervous step backwards, raising her hands defensively.

"Who are you?"

The man didn't acknowledge her. As he moved into the dim light of the reception area, they could see he was wearing a crumpled business suit, and carrying a gym bag. His eyes were blank. He didn't seem to see them as he shuffled through the reception, pushed open the door, and staggered out into the daylight.

".... ooookay," said Sol, "that's creepy."

"At least he didn't attack us." Luna cast a worried look towards the inner door. "Do you think there are more people in there?"

"Probably." Sol frowned. "You'd think they'd be asking why the lights aren't on, though..."

 _"They may not perceive the full extent of the darkness,"_ Sakaki said. _"I sense that one of the greater Spectres has dug into this place and surrounded itself with shadow. Driving out the Spectre at the heart of it all will dissolve the darkness."_

"So we just have to find the spider in the middle of the web?" asked Luna.

_"An apt metaphor. Yes."_

A horrible thought occurred to Sol. "It's... not actually going to be a giant spider, is it?"

 _"Well..."_ Sakaki hesitated. _"Spectres can take many forms. Sometimes they react to the things the people around them fear."_

Luna's eyes had gone rather wide.

"Tell me you're not scared of spiders," Sol begged him.

"No," he said quickly, "are you?"

"Not normal sized ones." Sol quite liked spiders, in fact, especially the big yellow and black ones that wove such intricate and enormous webs among the trees near Sakaki's shrine, but she didn't think she'd feel so good about one that was bigger than her. She shook herself and tried to lighten the mood. "Better hope no-one here's afraid of asbestos, right?"

Luna half-laughed, while Sakaki said, _"What is asbestos?"_

"Fire-proof," Luna explained succinctly. He looked over at Sol. "I guess we'd better get going and find the Spectre we are sincerely hoping is not a spider, then."

"Yeah."

They advanced cautiously down the hall. Luna tried a couple of light switches as he passed them, but nothing happened. When they reached the far doors, the blackness was so intense that nothing could be seen beyond the glass. It clung to the walls like a mass of web, or the century-old deposits of minerals in a deep cavern. It made Sol's skin crawl.

Luna very carefully pushed open the door, while Sol got ready to throw fire at anything eight-legged - or any-legged - that came out of the dark. There was only silence. She was tempted to light the place up anyway, just to try and clear the cloying shadow from the room, but stopped herself when she remembered what Luna had said about there being other people in there.

"We really need light," Luna murmured. "Maybe there's a torch somewhere back at the reception desk..."

Sol frowned. "Wait. Maybe I can... do something..."

So far she'd only thrown flames indiscriminately at the shadows, but she concentrated on the feeling she'd had each time, like the flames were a part of her. She took a breath, held out a hand, palm up, and whispered, "I call upon the sun, my liege, bright lord of the day. Grant me the power to overcome the dark… but not too much, okay?"

To her relief, a flame no bigger than a candle sprang up in the palm of her hand. By its flickering light, they could make out the shapes of gym equipment in the room beyond. There were a lot more people than Sol had expected. One or two were pedalling slowly on exercise bikes, but most were sitting or lying on the mats and the weights benches, as if everyone had fallen asleep mid-workout.

From somewhere deeper into the room came a dry slithering sound. Luna took a step back.

"I'm not so good with snakes, though," he said faintly.

"Well don't _think_ about them, then!" Sol pulled the other door open and strode into the room. Luna hesitated, but came after her, though she couldn't tell if that was to back her up or because he didn't want to be left alone without the light. "Keep a look out for anything moving."

"Oh, I'm looking." Luna was moving like a nervous cat, flinching away from anything he encountered, human or otherwise. "Do you have any idea how hard it is not to think about snakes when you've started thinking about snakes?"

"Yes," said Sol, trying very hard not to think about snakes. "Hey, there's a door back here."

As Sol approached, her flame illuminated a sign that read 'Staff Office'. From behind the door came another dry scraping sound. Luna twitched. By the side of the door was a keypad. Sol gave the handle a tug, but it was clear that the office was locked. There were no handy windows to show what was beyond, and no handy piece of paper with the code lying around nearby.

"Any ideas?" Sol asked after they'd tried kicking it a couple of times.

"Find a fire axe or something, I guess..." Luna didn't sound fully comfortable with the idea. "Unless you can melt the lock."

"I... can probably do that," Sol said. "I can't think of any other ways of getting in there, can you?"

"Not really."

Sol held up the flame in her hand and silently encouraged it to leap forward. With sudden intensity, the fire enveloped the lock, which began to discolour, then smoke, then slowly deform.

"I think it's working," Luna said, watching closely. "You just need to--"

They both nearly jumped out of their skins when all at once the gym's fire alarm went off.

"Oh, great." Sol put her free hand over one ear. "Try kicking it again."

Luna obliged, then shoved the door with his shoulder until the half-melted lock suddenly gave way and he almost stumbled into the room beyond. Sol grabbed his tunic and pulled him back, already half-aware of the looming threat beyond. When she got a good look at it, she swallowed hard. She barely heard Luna say, "Oh my god," followed by, "I call upon the moon my liege..."

It wasn't a spider or a snake, at least. That fact didn't help much. Four long spindly legs spread to each corner of the room, and at their centre was a body like a praying mantis, with razor-sharp claws raised aggressively in their direction. One of its legs twitched against the wall, making the slithering sound they'd heard earlier. Apart from that, it didn't move. It stared at them with myriad eyes they couldn't see, and malice rolled off it like a wave.

A second later, it struck, but Luna's glimmering shield was already around them, and the sharp claws were deflected from its surface with a horrible screeching like metal on metal. The Spectre reared back, drawing its legs in as if preparing to spring.

"Oh _hell_ no," Sol muttered. The fire was already in her hand. All she had to do was throw it out beyond the shield... and _will_ it to expand like a star going nova.

Flames exploded into every corner of the room. Luna ducked, but his shield remained steady, and the flames couldn't reach them. The Spectre jerked back, scrambled uselessly at the walls as if trying to climb out, then caught alight and writhed with great sweeps of agony in the fire. Its claws scored deep marks into the walls before they crumbled to ash, and the last Sol saw of it was its body crashing down onto a desk, and then dissolving into soot and smoke.

The fire alarm was still shrieking. Sol supposed she couldn't blame it at this point. With a sudden flash of panic, she tried to dampen the flames. The inferno eased, but she could see that things in the room were alight. Piles of paper and someone's magazine collection were crackling merrily, while the fabric covers on the chairs smoldered in a more deadly and focused way...

"Oh no..."

Luna's shield vanished as he pushed past her, heading for something on the wall. A moment later, he was dousing most of the room with a fire extinguisher. Sol watched sheepishly as soggy piles of foam took the place of flames. By the time Luna was done, the ceiling lights were beginning to come back on, wan and flickering, but still a thousand times brighter than her little flame had been.

"Maybe I should start carrying one of those around," she said as Luna used up the last of the extinguisher and put it carefully down on the floor.

"Or maybe that's my job," Luna replied as he took in the scorch marks and claw gouges on the walls. "I... don't seem to be able to do much to help destroy those things."

"Hey, you stopped it destroying _us_." Sol turned to look back out into the gym. The people there were stirring, some sitting up and blinking in confusion. "Look - they're waking up."

"Then we should get out of here before the police show up and arrest us for arson."

"Good plan!"

* * *

At some point in the last week, Shoichi wasn't sure when, two cushions had appeared in the shrine clearing. He had to assume Akemi had brought them, unless Sakaki's powers extended to the spontaneous manifestation of soft furnishings. He was glad to have something to sit on that wasn't the ground, either way.

"I think I am beginning to understand," Sakaki said slowly as Akemi finished telling her about the people in the gym. "It is concerning... very concerning. They have found a new way to target the souls of those who do not bear shards."

Akemi sat up straight in alarm.

"All those people? Are they going to end up--"

She couldn't finish the sentence, but Sakaki was already responding.

"No, they will all recover now you have destroyed the Spectre."

"What was it doing to them?" Shoichi asked. "Why would the Multitude be interested in people without shards?" 

"It is more the other way around," Sakaki said. When Shoichi and Akemi looked at her questioningly, she went on, "The Multitude has always coveted souls, but to take a person's soul without their consent is very difficult, and takes a long, long time. The Multitude has always relied on trickery to convince people to sign their souls away willingly, and on the slow and patient ensnaring of the unfortunate or incautious."

Shoichi thought back to what Sakaki had told them about the shards and began to see the shape of what she meant. "But the shards aren't exactly souls, are they? You said the soul gets trapped in the shard, but I can prevent that..."

"Exactly," said Sakaki. "The shards are much easier to extract, requiring only a short time to build resonance between the victim and the knife. Once the Archdukes discovered the existence of the shards, they pursued them eagerly, but they did not cease their other methods. Throughout history they have continued to amass a collection of ill-gotten souls."

"Why?" Akemi asked. "What do they want souls for? Do they _eat_ them or something?"

Sakaki hesitated for _just_ too long. Akemi's eyes went wide. "Do-- do they _really_ \--"

"In a way," Sakaki said. "The Multitude cannot learn or change. All new knowledge and skill must be taken from those who can. That is also why it makes use of humans foolish enough to seek its power for their own ends. Without the Archdukes, it is formless and legion, lacking the understanding of the human world needed to pursue its goals."

"What are its goals?" asked Shoichi. "What _is_ the Multitude, anyway?"

"The Multitude wants everything, and nothing that we can understand," said Sakaki. "It is said to be what once owned the Earth long eons before humans walked its surface, before the faintest spark of life was kindled, even before the oceans and lands were formed. When this world was a place of fire and shadow the great Fiends dwelt on the surface, but as the planet cooled and the fire was sealed beneath a crust, they too were shut away. Eventually the clouds of ash and soot disappeared, and then the Spectres, too, were driven down into the depths by the light of the sun, moon, and stars. Deep in the heart of this world they wait, many and yet of one purpose, an Infernal Multitude seeking ever to find its way back through cracks and tunnels and the shadows of the world. They yearn for the fires to be rekindled and magma to fill the rivers, for the waters to evaporate and leave the oceans naught but dust, for the skies to burn away every trace of the world they despise and pile on such clouds of ash that darkness will rule behind the flames."

"And… that's what they'll do… if they win?" Akemi said. "Burn up the world?"

"Yes."

"But the Celestial Guard has always stopped them," Shoichi said hurriedly.

"Yes. Often at great cost, but they have always been pushed back. Once the thrust of their invasion has been broken, they must retreat to the depths and rebuild their strength. It takes them decades, if not centuries. Their strength under the sky is limited: they must rely on the Archdukes to work for them, and on the shards and the souls they steal to bolster their power."

"So... there are lot more people who need protecting, apart from the shard-bearers?" said Akemi, her expression troubled.

"Yes and no. When I say it takes a long time to ensnare an unwilling soul, I mean it takes months, sometimes _years_ of intense focus on one person."

"So there won't be as many victims."

"That is how it has been in the past. What you found in the gym is something I have rarely seen before. I believe the Spectre was constantly draining a little energy from every person who frequented the place. Although their condition must have seemed dire to you, it will have been only a tiny fraction of their soul that was affected. It would take centuries to remove one person's soul by such a method, but if it were employed in some place where many people frequently gathered..."

"All the little bits add up," Akemi finished for her. "How come they haven't done it before, then?"

"To be worthwhile, the Spectre must have been affecting many more people than you saw in the building. They were at the centre, and so were the worst afflicted, but it would need to be draining hundreds, thousands of people to achieve any sort of meaningful power. I cannot remember another time or place I have seen where so many people dwelt so close together and so many souls constantly followed the same paths day after day. This city is bewildering to behold."

"I guess that's why the Spectres are in such odd places," Akemi said, then added, in Shoichi's direction, "The first one was in a nightclub. There were two in different shopping malls and one at a train station. I thought it was weird, but it makes more sense now."

"It is crucial that we find and destroy as many of these haunts as possible," Sakaki went on. "For the Multitude to have access to such power so easily... I dread to think of the consequences if we do not put a stop to it."

"We're gonna be busy," Akemi said with a sigh. "And we have to look out for the shard-bearers too."

"Indeed," said Sakaki. "Luna, have you had any success with the soul anchor?"

Shoichi reluctantly shook his head. He'd been trying all week, but he was no closer to understanding what he was supposed to do. Looking within himself hadn't revealed anything other than a growing fear he would not be able to save the next shard-bearer.

"It will come to you," Sakaki said reassuringly. "I have faith in you, Luna."

Somehow, that only made him feel worse.

* * *

The next haunt was easier, now they knew what to expect and what was going on, although the semi-conscious people stumbling around in the dark still gave Luna the creeps. Sol didn't even set the place on fire this time.

They were so successful that after Sol dragged him into an alley to transform back, she called Sakaki and told her they were going to celebrate before coming to the shrine.

"Celebrate how, exactly?" Shoichi asked warily, but not without interest. Akemi was a bit like a hurricane at times, and at times he quite enjoyed being blown away. "Neither of us is old enough to drink."

"Who needs alcohol when we have karaoke?"

"Seriously?"

"Of course!" Akemi grabbed him by the arm again. Shoichi let himself be towed. As they made their way through the streets, Akemi went on, "We always celebrate things with karaoke. It's traditional."

"Who's 'we'?"

"Oh..." For a moment her enthusiasm dampened. "My friend Hana and me. She... doesn't know about this stuff."

Shoichi thought back to when he'd met Akemi outside her school earlier. "The girl with the long braids?"

"That's her!" Akemi lit up again. "She's so awesome, we've been friends since forever. She was even with me when I first met Sakaki... but we didn't know it at the time..."

She launched into a story involving kittens and something about a monster that ate shoes. Shoichi half-listened, distracted by the new email alert from his phone. It was a reply from Satoru. He hesitated, torn between the desire to read it immediately or to wait and give it his full attention, but impatience won out. They'd been emailing back and forth since that day on the train. It was entirely mundance, casual conversation, but Shoichi found himself looking forward to each new email almost painfully. Maybe it was the thread of normality it asserted in the middle of this strange sideways turn his life had taken, or maybe it was the way Satoru was in possession of a dry humour Shoichi would never have suspected, and found delightful.

"... and it's just not fair," Akemi was saying as Shoichi guiltily snapped his attention back to her. "Hana would love all of this so much, and I can't tell her..."

"Why not?"

Akemi blinked at him. "Huh?"

"Why can't you tell her? She can keep a secret, can't she?"

"Well, yeah, of course..." Akemi looked at the ground as if fascinated by the occasional piece of old chewing gum they passed. "But I..." She struggled, then went on almost too quiet to hear, "... it's hard to explain. I don't know how to tell her that I get to be a magical girl and she doesn't. And at the same time, I don't... want her to know. About the shard-bearers, I guess. About that girl in the hospital."

Shoichi's stomach flipped in a much less pleasant way than it had when he'd been reading Satoru's email.

"It'll be okay," he said. "We'll get her shard back and I can... I can fix her, she'll be fine."

"Right," said Akemi. Shoichi must have sounded more confident than he felt, because the smile was back. "And then I'll tell Hana all about it. Maybe she can help us understand Sakaki's directions, she's way better with maps than me..."

Shoichi forced a laugh, and kept up a pretty good facade of having fun throughout the next hour of karaoke, but the sick dread seemed to have settled into the pit of his stomach for good now.

Later that night, he stood in his bedroom with the curtains open so he could see the half moon glimmering between the houses, and tried again and again to cast an invisible line. When he finally went to bed, it was so late that the moon had vanished above the highest point he could see from his window, and when he finally slept, he dreamed of dark halls and the smell of the sea.

* * *

"I feel like I know her," Shoichi said as they clung to the straps in the crowded train and tried to keep an eye on the shard-bearer at the other end of the carriage. "Are you sure she isn't another Guardian?"

"Sakaki's sure." Akemi stifled a yawn. "Besides, she doesn't _look_ like a Guardian."

"I don't know if that matters," Shoichi said, but he had to agree. The woman was a neatly turned out housewife in her fifties or sixties, one of the ones who still wore a traditional kimono when she went out to play pachinko in the evening. Shoichi couldn't imagine her fighting Spectres. "There's just... something really familiar about her."

"Maybe she's been on TV."

"I don't think that's it." Shoichi shot another glance at the woman. "I feel like I should know her name, but I can't remember it, and that... hurts."

Akemi frowned. "Maybe she looks like someone else you know."

"I guess so," Shoichi said with a sigh. "I... really don't want the Spectres to attack her."

"Me neither. I sort of thought all the shard-bearers would be our age, you know?"

Shoichi nodded. It had been a stupid assumption, in hindsight, but he too had subconsciously thought they would be saving their fellow teenagers. This woman wasn't yet frail, but there was a delicacy in the bones of her face that made him shrink inside at the thought of the shadows taking hold of her. And then there was that nagging familiarity...

The train slowed down and stopped at the shard-bearer's station. Just as she had every night this week, she waited until it had come to a complete halt before she carefully stood up from her seat and slipped through the crowd. Akemi elbowed her way after her, and Shoichi followed, casting a last glance over the train carriage for any sign of the Spectres that could take the form of people.

He didn't see anything more suspicious than tired office workers, but just for a second he caught a glimpse of someone leaving by another door, and his heart jumped. Was that Satoru? A moment later Shoichi was on the platform, and there was no sign of whoever it was he'd seen. He shook himself. Probably not, he realised. They were out on a branch line almost forty minutes from Osaka. Satoru wouldn't have any reason to be coming here at nearly 11PM on a week night.

As soon as they were out of the station, they ducked behind a building and transformed. Luna was coming to realise that there was a fine line between when it was useful to be in Guardian form and when they needed to look as normal as possible. Out in the streets, in the dark, late at night, people seemed not to notice them hurrying in their costumes after the shard-bearer. In crowded and brightly lit places, they got some odd looks.

"I know this is awful," Sol said as they paused on a corner to let the shard-bearer get far enough ahead that they wouldn't be obvious, "but I really wish they'd just get on with it."

"I know what you--" Luna paused and stared ahead. "Wait. Look at the road."

Sol peered after the shard bearer. "It's... kind of narrow, isn't it? For a sidewalk?"

"The shadows are closing in on both sides." Luna took off at a run. "Looks like you got your wish."

"And now I feel terrible," Sol muttered as she easily overtook him. "Get ready!"

The sidewalk had become a fragile bridge over empty nothingness, and the shard-bearer was faltering, looking around her in alarm. From the void below, hands suddenly sprang up, grabbing her and pinning her to the rapidly shrinking ground so quickly she couldn't even flinch. Luna expected her to scream, but all she managed was a gasp of shock that was somehow worse. He redoubled his speed, ready to cast the shield over her as soon as he was in range... but then Sol grabbed his arm.

"We can't, remember?" she said.

More shadowy hands shot up around them, reaching eagerly to grasp their prey. Sol rattled through her call to the sun so quickly it was almost nonsense, and fire burned the spindly limbs before they could take hold. Reluctantly, Luna whispered his own prayer to the moon, and brought the shield up around them both, leaving the shard-bearer to her fate.

The Archduke stepped out of the shadows on the narrow line of paving ahead. This time he had the form of a man in his forties. Luna thought it was one of the other pachinko players. The Archduke paused and looked at them both with narrowed eyes.

"You've figured out there's no point in stopping me, huh?" He looked from Sol to Luna. "And there's two of you now. Great. Why didn't you just stay home?"

"We won't let you get away with the shard," Sol snarled. "Even if we can't stop you taking it in the first place."

"Oh, right. They said this might happen." The Archduke sneered at the pair of them. "Gotta catch 'em all, right? You want the shard, I want the shard, that bastard with the glow-in-the-dark sunglasses is probably around here somewhere looking for the shard too..."

"The other Archduke?" said Luna, remembering what Sol and Sakaki had told him.

"Him? Ha! He isn't one of ours. If I see him again... let's just say this thing--" He flourished the obsidian knife. "--stabs people just as well as it takes souls."

The knife began to glow. A similar light sprang up around the woman lying pinned to the ground. She had been looking from the Archduke to the two Guardians with wide eyes but a surprising lack of fear. Now she glared at the man with the knife.

"What is your name, young man?"

The Archduke looked taken aback. "Excuse me?"

"What is your name?" the woman repeated. "Does your mother know you're out here attacking old ladies in the middle of the night?"

The man scowled with a petulance that made Luna realise suddenly that whatever he looked like on the outside, the woman was right: he was young.

"I am the Archduke Neikos," he announced, "and you are my sacrifice. So shut up!"

"You talk too much," said the shard-bearer. "If you're going to murder me, you might as well get it over with."

The self-proclaimed Archduke Neikos started to argue back, then seemed to get the better of himself and instead simply thrust the knife forward into the air. A line of bright white light sprang up between the shard-bearer and the tip of the knife. She sucked in her breath as if it were being squeezed out of her, and a brilliant glow began to form at the mid-point of the line.

"This is it," whispered Sol. "I'll go for the shard as soon as it appears. You make sure she keeps her soul!"

Luna nodded, but he felt sick as he tried one more time to find whatever it was Sakaki claimed lay deep inside himself. He raised his hand, ready to cast the invisible line, and finally, as the light began to coalesce, he thought he _could_ feel something stirring. He reached for it...

From out of the unnatural shadows a figure suddenly leapt towards the bright spot of light. Neikos yelled and yanked the knife back as if trying to hook the shard towards him, but the new arrival was too quick, snatching the glowing thing out of the air as he dashed past in one swift movement that was almost too fast to register. Whatever power had been welling up in Luna immediately dissipated, and the _"NO!"_ that tore from his throat was echoed by Sol as the shard-bearer slumped limply to the ground.

Neikos swore and launched himself after the figure with the shard, Sol in hot pursuit. Luna hesitated for just a second, held by the sight of the frail old woman and that sense of familiarity, now made awful, before he plunged after Sol.

The man with the shard must have gone up a fire escape, because Neikos was riding a wave of furious shadow towards the roof of a nearby building while Sol sprinted up five flights of stairs as if it were nothing. Luna desperately tried to keep up, but he'd already learned that Sol could outrun him easily. All he could do was keep the three of them in sight and hope that if they started fighting in earnest he'd be able to catch up.

Sol was throwing fireballs around like they were going out of fashion. The Archduke's cloak of darkness boiled in response, swallowing some of the fire and deflecting the rest of it. The man with the shard just never seemed to get hit. Somehow he was always somewhere else when the fire came his way, and he was even faster than Sol. They weren't going to catch him, Luna thought with horror, and the woman's soul was still bound to the shard. If he got away, they wouldn't be able to save her...

Neikos snarled a command Luna didn't catch. Spectres sprang up ahead of the other man, cutting him off. He veered to avoid them, and it seemed that Sol's fire _must_ catch him as he turned directly into it... but he slipped past without any sign it had touched him. Now he was running out of space, though, the edge of the building coming up fast.

He didn't even slow down, launching himself off the parapet as if he had no fear of falling. Perhaps he didn't. He landed easily on the next building and kept running. Neikos rode his shadows cross the gap, and Luna looked at Sol, thinking, _she won't, will she?_

Sol didn't seem to hesitate either. Luna almost tripped over his own feet as he watched her jump, but she landed safely, if less gracefully than her target. So... that meant he was going to have to do it too. He tried not to think about the drop as the edge drew closer. It wasn't far, he could see that now. It would be like jumping over a puddle. A large puddle. Which would kill him if he landed in it...

He stumbled to a stop right before the parapet, furious with himself but completely unable to help it. On the roof of the next building, the Archduke's Spectres made another grab for the man with the shard, this time forcing him to dodge backwards towards his pursuers. Sol took advantage of Neikos's distraction to stop running for a second and send a huge wave of fire in his direction. He wasn't prepared for it and staggered back, shrieking and smouldering, as Sol kept hammering him with flames. The thought suddenly broke into Luna's mind, _Sakaki said the Archdukes are human. Are we going to_ kill _him?_

Neikos's clothing caught alight. He howled in rage and spat curses at Sol as he fled towards Luna, shadows wrapping around him and smothering the fire. The older man's face he wore was fraying at the edges as he sank into the darkness, but the hatred on it was still unmistakeable. Luna summoned the shield instinctively, and the mass of shadow that had been the Archduke flinched from its light, and dived off the roof into the darkness below.

From the other roof, he heard a yell from Sol, then a thud and a distant, metallic _ting_ of something hitting the ground. Either the Spectres or the fire had forced the man with the shard to lose ground, and Sol had apparently tackled him hard enough to send them both crashing down on the surface of the roof. Sol rolled to her feet and lunged towards something Luna couldn't see, grabbing it and backing up with more fire swirling around her hand.

"I have _had_ it with you creeps!" Sol yelled. "Go back to the Multitude and stay there!"

She flung the ball of flame at the man, who was just getting to his feet. He sprang back out of reach of the fire. Luna was still too far away to see him clearly in the dark. He seemed to be wearing a long coat of some kind, with a hood pulled up over his head and his eyes obscured by a glass visor that glowed faintly blue, just enough to make it seem opaque at a distance.

For the first time, the man spoke. Luna could only just make out what he was saying. "I am not part of the Multitude. I've had many names, but the one I'm called most often is Kestrel. I have to take the shard--"

"Like hell you will! That woman's _soul_ is in there!"

"It's too late for her," said Kestrel. "I can't let you have the shard, or her sacrifice will be in vain."

"It's not too late!" Sol raised her hand again, fire in her fist, even as she took another step back with the shard held safely in her other hand. "If you hadn't interrupted we could have _saved_ her!"

Sol threw the fireball before he could respond, but Luna saw the way Kestrel reacted to her words, saw the whole-body jerk of a shock he hadn't been prepared for. Then he leapt away from the fire and ran. Sol started after him, but Luna shouted, "Don't! We need to get back to the shard-bearer!"

Sol pulled up, turned, and hurried back towards him. She cast occasional glances over her shoulder, but Luna was watching the darkness behind her keenly for any sign of either Neikos or Kestrel, and saw nothing. When she got to the edge of her building, Sol slowed down and peered over the edge with a startled expression.

"I... really jumped over this, didn't I?"

"Yes, you really did," said Luna, amused by her dismay. Then embarrassment rose up in his chest. "I, uh, I couldn't quite..."

"Yeeeeeeeeeah," said Sol, still staring down at the gap. "I don't blame you. I'm gonna see if there's a fire escape I can use to get down from here..."

* * *

They found the shard-bearer lying where she'd fallen. The unnatural shadows were fading away. Fortunately no-one else had stumbled over her; Luna didn't know what they would have done if she'd been loaded into an ambulance while they were chasing Kestrel.

Sol handed him the shard. Luna examined it curiously. From the name, he'd expected it to be glass, or crystal, but it was actually some sort of metal. It looked like silver, except that a rainbow sheen seemed to dance across its surface whenever it caught the light of the street lamps. It felt warm, except... it didn't, not really. He wasn't feeling any heat through his glove. The warmth was something he sensed with the part of him that called upon the moon. Absently, he pinched his finger and thumb together against the surface as if grasping a fine thread, and began to pull.

At first he sensed movement, as if he were drawing a fishing line smoothly out of water, but then all at once he met resistance. Luna tugged gently at first, then harder, but it wouldn't budge.

"What do you mean, it's stuck?" Sol demanded when he tried to explain. "How can a soul get _stuck_?"

"I don't know!" The sick feeling was back. "I just... I can tell what I'm supposed to be doing, but it isn't working."

"What do we do?"

For answer, Luna opened his crest and said, "Sakaki?"

_"Did you get the shard?"_

"We did, but there's a problem. I didn't manage to anchor her soul before it was taken. Now she's in a coma, and I don't know what to do."

 _"For now there may be nothing you_ can _do,"_ Sakaki said after a moment. _"If you missed the opportunity to anchor the soul before it was removed, we are in unknown territory."_

"Hey, he didn't _miss the opportunity_ ," Sol put in. "That Kestrel guy jumped in and grabbed it--"

 _"Kestrel?"_ Sakaki's voice was suddenly sharp. _"The man with the visor? He spoke to you?"_

"Only to try and get us to give him the shard," Sol replied with a scowl. "I fireballed him. He won't get the jump on us like that again."

 _"Good,"_ said Sakaki. _"I know that name. Be wary of him. He is an enemy of the Celestial Guard."_

"He said he wasn't working with the Multitude," Luna countered, remembering the way Kestrel had reacted to Sol's angry assertion that they could save the shard-bearer. "So did the Archduke, remember?"

 _"He does not have to be part of the Multitude to be your enemy,"_ Sakaki insisted. _"Do not be so easily swayed, Luna! If he is the same Kestrel I have met before, he is a traitor and a liar. You must be vigilant, for he is quick to paint himself as the lesser evil compared to the Archdukes."_

"Ha, that sounds about right," said Sol, but Luna was frowning, running Sakaki's words through his mind again.

"What do you mean, you've met him before?" he asked. "I thought you said there were hundreds of years between the Multitude's attacks."

Sakaki hesitated just long enough that Luna was about to ask another question, but she forestalled him.

_"There is more of the history of the Guard that I have yet to tell you... and there are others like me who have lived more lifetimes than we can count. Come back to the shrine. I will tell you about Atlantis, and perhaps together we can find a way to free this soul from its captivity."_

She broke the connection before they could say anything else, leaving them to look at each other in confusion.

"Atlantis?" queried Sol.

"It's an... underwater city, or... no, that's just in cartoons." Luna frowned. "I've read about it somewhere but I can't remember the details." He looked down at the shard-bearer and felt a wave of almost unbearable guilt. "We'd better call some help for her."

"Oh.... right."

Sol's transformation flared brightly, leaving Akemi kneeling on the pavement. She pulled her phone out of her school uniform pocket and dialled the emergency services. Luna reached for the shard-bearer's small handbag and opened it.

"What are you doing?" Akemi hissed.

"Finding out who she is so we can track her down once we know how to return her soul." Luna said.

He reversed his own transformation, pulled out his phone, and jotted down the details he found in her wallet.

"Oh. That's... a really good idea. Um. Carry on. Hi, yes, we need an ambulance..."


	6. Collision Course

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Only a day late in the end! After this we're back to the regular two week updates. Also, I've started putting character portraits up on [the website](http://celestial-chronicle.brightwanderer.net/character-profiles/), if you want to see what these people look like (in my head, at least).

It started to rain on the way back to the shrine, as if the sky had decided they weren't quite defeated enough and wanted to contribute. Neither of them had a school bag with them (it turned out those didn't go anywhere when they transformed either, which was awkward) but Shoichi had taken the precaution of pocketing enough cash to buy, say, a meal, or a ride home, or, as it turned out, two plastic umbrellas from the nearest convenience store.

The cushions were stashed under Sakaki's branches along with their bags, but Sakaki's leaves weren't thick enough to completely protect them, and if Shoichi hadn't been feeling thoroughly miserable by that point anyway, sitting on a damp cushion with a cheap umbrella clutched over as much of him as he could manage would definitely have done the trick.

"This sucks," said Akemi, from under her own makeshift shelter. "Sakaki--"

"You are about to ask if I can make the rain stop," Sakaki interrupted with exasperation, "and the answer is no."

"No I wasn't!" Akemi protested. "I was going to ask if you could make us a tent."

"And the answer is still no."

Shoichi shifted to try and get himself a bit more into the dry. A stick poked him in the back, and he gave up.

"I think I _have_ a tent somewhere," he said, glad of the momentary diversion. "One of those little pop-up ones people use to go fishing. I'll look for it when I get home."

"That doesn't help us now," Akemi grumbled, then immediately shot him an apologetic glance through the transparent umbrella canopies. "Sorry. That would be good, if you can find it."

Shoichi nodded. At that point there wasn't really anything else to distract them from what they'd come here for. With a lump in his throat, he took the shard out of his pocket and held it up.

"I can feel it in there," he said. "The woman's soul, I mean. I can touch it, but I can't get it out. It's like..." He struggled to put the sensation into words. "It's like one of those puzzles where you have to tilt the maze to get the ball to the end."

"Or as if it is trapped in the broken reflections of many lives," Sakaki murmured. "Yes, I can sense it now you have brought it here. It is tangled in a myriad of memories and you will need to tease it free in order to return this woman to the life she knows now. Do not fret, Luna. This you can do, with patience, which I know you have in abundance."

Shoichi swallowed hard, suddenly on the verge of tears, as much from relief as anything. "That's... that's good to know."

"What do you mean, many lives?" Akemi asked. "You said that before. And you said you were going to explain how you know Kestrel as well. And something about an underwater city..."

"Atlantis," Shoichi put in. "It's not underwater. Well, I mean, it ended up underwater, sort of. I looked it up on my phone on the train. It's a myth about an ancient city where the people became too arrogant. The sea god punished them by sending a wave that destroyed everything."

"It is not a myth," Sakaki said sharply. "And the story of its fall was told by our enemies, who had little reason to love us. It was not pride or the wrath of gods that destroyed Atlantis… we were betrayed by those jealous of our power, who turned to the Multitude for means to destroy us."

Shoichi and Akemi looked at each other.

"We?" Shoichi said. "You were _there_?"

"I was."

"How long ago was that?"

"It is hard for me to say. I cannot measure the passing of years with any accuracy. It has been at least… thirty-five centuries, I think, since Atlantis fell."

"... three-and-a-half _thousand_ years?" said Shoichi after a moment's mental arithmetic. Akemi's mouth dropped open. "And you've been here all that time?"

"Not in this place, or bound to this tree, and I have not witnessed the passage of all those years. My existence moves in cycles. I live for a time and then I slumber. When I wake within a new grove I know that I will soon sense the return of the Guard and of the Multitude." Sakaki rustled her leaves in something like a shrug. "This sacred _sakaki_ is where I found myself in this lifetime. My spirit is always drawn towards a tree with history, it seems."

"Wait," Akemi said, brow crinkled in confusion, "were you a tree in Atlantis too? Were talking trees a _thing_ then?"

"I am _not a talking tree._ "

"Right, okay, I remember!" Akemi threw up her hands apologetically, which meant she let go of the umbrella handle, which meant it lurched sideways and she yelped as a stream of rainwater went down the back of her neck. "Not a talking tree. So you weren't a talking tree then, either?"

"No," said Sakaki, with a faint tone of long-suffering patience, "I was as human as you when I lived in Atlantis. I have remained as a spirit of guidance to the Celestial Guard ever since." Before Akemi could say anything else about talking trees, she hurried on, "The Guard were first formed in Atlantis. They were the protectors of the royal family and the kingdom."

"Royal family?" Now Akemi seemed to have been directed down a different track. "With, like, princesses and stuff?"

"Oh yes," said Sakaki softly, "there was a princess. She was... very fierce, and brave, and bright. She would have been a great queen."

"I'm starting to think the magical girl thing isn't entirely my fault," Akemi said with a grin. She looked intrigued though. "So there were a King and Queen--"

"A Queen and her consort," Sakaki corrected.

"Oh." Akemi blinked. "Hey, that's cool! Good for her. Okay, so a Queen, and at least one princess, and the Celestial Guard, and..." She frowned. "... no-one knows about it? Shoichi said it was a myth. Three-and-a-half thousand years is a long time, but we still know about, um, Ancient Greece and stuff, don't we?"

"Ancient Greece wasn't that long ago," said Shoichi. "I think."

"No. Their civilisation did not even arise until long after Atlantis had fallen," said Sakaki. "And the fall was... terrible. The most terrible disaster... that has ever been." Her voice had lowered until they had to strain to hear her. "Vast and dreadful powers went to war with one another, and when the balance tipped, the world... broke, in many tiny ways, and not only did Atlantis sink below the sea, it became... a place that had never been."

Shoichi struggled to process that, while Akemi just said, "I don't understand."

"It is hard to explain. Perhaps I cannot. But I believe you will not find any island now where Atlantis once lay, nor any evidence of its influence. For millennia its name was forgotten entirely. The only traces left are the Celestial Guard... and the shards."

Shoichi looked at the shard he was still holding. "These are from Atlantis?"

"Yes, and they have passed from soul to soul through all the centuries since the fall. They bring with them... memories of the lives they have touched in the past, and of Atlantis itself. That is what makes it so hard for you to remove the soul now held within the shard. It is entangled in all the echoes of other lives."

Shoichi turned the shard over in his hand. Now that Sakaki had put it into words, he understood better what it was he was sensing. Yes, he thought, Sakaki was right. He could do it. It would be like untangling a fine gold chain, slowly and carefully. For the first time in days, his stomach settled and the dread that had been hanging over him lifted.

"I should get home and get to work on it, then," he said, preparing to stand up. "I don't want that woman's family worried for longer than they have to be--"

"Wait," Akemi said, "what about that Kestrel guy?"

"Oh, right." Shoichi had almost forgotten that part. "You said you knew him."

"Him or someone like him," Sakaki said after a pause. "Just as in every lifetime the Multitude re-emerges and gathers more Archdukes, so also a man calling himself Kestrel slips out of the shadows. He claims no allegiance to the Multitude, yet he seeks the shards and will do whatever it takes to obtain them. I believe the visor he wears is passed down like your crests, granting its power to a new wielder, but I do not know who he serves. I fear despite his denial that it is the Multitude - or that through his pursuit of power for its own sake, he unwittingly furthers their cause."

"So he's definitely a bad guy," said Akemi. "I knew it. I hope I set him on fire while he was running away."

Shoichi opened his mouth to say something about the way Kestrel had reacted when Sol had told him they could save the shard-bearer, but then changed his mind. He couldn't be sure he hadn't misinterpreted that flinch. And Sakaki was right that even if he wasn't technically working for the Multitude, he was accidentally helping them by interfering with the Guard.

"We know to watch out for him now," Shoichi said. "I can use my shield to stop him getting at the shards."

A gust of wind tugged both of their umbrellas and sent a wave of rain into their faces. Akemi made a disgusted noise and Shoichi decided enough was really enough.

"Let's go home," he said. "I'll work on the shard and tell you when I get somewhere. And I'll look for that tent."

"That is the best idea I have ever heard, ever," Akemi said with enthusiasm, jumping to her feet and grabbing her bag. "See you later, Sakaki!"

"Go safely," Sakaki replied. "And be careful with the shard, Luna. Do not let yourself be too drawn into the reflections."

* * *

By the time Shoichi got home it was after one in the morning. He'd been too preoccupied with the shard to worry about it until he found himself quietly opening the door and braced for an outcry.

But the house was dark and silent. His father's shoes were by the door. His mother's weren't. Shoichi slipped up the stairs and into his room as noiselessly as he could manage, but there was no response from behind his parents' door. His father must have been back late enough to assume that Shoichi was already asleep. He wouldn't be surprised if his mother didn't come home at all. She usually slept in her office when she was in the middle of a big case, and Shoichi honestly couldn't remember a time when the cases hadn't been big enough to keep her away from home for days at a stretch.

He felt a surge of guilt as he silently changed for bed. His parents had worked hard for their success, and they had done it, as they were not afraid to tell him, for his sake as much as their own. Since he was twelve years old they'd trusted him to look after himself and work hard at school, and he had obediently held up his side of the bargain, whether that meant long hours in the library or learning to cook his own meals and do his own laundry. He'd never been inclined to stay out late or skip homework in favour of hanging out with friends, even though he'd eaten a lot of dinners by himself in the kitchen, and woken on so many mornings to catch only a glimpse of one or other parent hurrying out of the door.

At least until now. Now when it was so important that he concentrate on schoolwork and his entrance exams, when he only had a year to go before university... now he was sneaking out at night and the homework was piling up. He hadn't even glanced at the notes for the test tomorrow. He'd need to do that now, before he got any sleep, but then another pang of guilt struck from the other direction: what about the shard? What about the woman who was by now lying in a hospital bed with her grief-stricken family asking questions that the doctors couldn't answer? How could he prioritise a stupid test over that?

He climbed into bed with his notes. He'd put the shard inside his Guardian crest, which he slipped under his pillow for now. He'd study first and let everything Sakaki had said sink in, then try again to free the soul from the shard. Although what happened if he pulled it out when the shard-bearer wasn't around? He'd need to be careful, figure out the way to do it but not actually follow through...

It probably shouldn't have come as a surprise that he was asleep five minutes later, but then, Shoichi had never tried to combine late night studying with a double life as a superhero before, and hadn't realised how tired he was. The last thing he remembered thinking was that he could hear the sound of the sea again.

* * *

"Try it again," said a voice he knew by heart, and he sighed, and moved to the start of the labyrinth, and composed himself.

She was leaning against the wall of the room as casually as if she wasn't resting her shoulder on a mural their father had paid a fortune for, and he thought this would be easier if she wasn't watching, except he knew that was a lie. He'd been trying all week without her here and made no progress.

"Perhaps it just isn't meant to be," he said as he took a breath and began to walk the looping path inlaid in black stone on the floor. "Whatever the oracle said..."

"Ha! The oracle was for Father's benefit," she said with a disdain that would have earned her a severe scolding if their mother had heard it. "I have no doubt the old bat said whatever she thought he wanted to hear, which is exactly why I persuaded him to go. _I_ on the other hand have known you for seventeen years and am quite sure in my own mind that you will be chosen for the Guard."

"And this has nothing at all to do with your designs on a certain young lord, I presume."

"Call it a convenient overlap of interests," she said with a laugh and the pretence of devilry in her face. He knew her too well to believe it for a second. If she thought he could become a Guardian, it was because she believed it with all her heart. "You're supposed to be meditating."

"It's difficult to meditate with the incessant scheming of my family all around," he complained, mostly to make her laugh again.

"All right, no more talking," she said, and true to her word, she sat in silence as he walked the labyrinth.

By the time he was done, the setting sun had turned her golden hair to copper and the shadows on the floor were almost as dark as the lines, but he was no closer to finding any sense of awakening within himself.

"Don't lose heart," she said when he stepped out of the labyrinth with a downcast face. "Tomorrow is another day. Come on, let's go and walk by the sea until they call us to eat."

"You go on," he said. "I want to stay here a while."

She frowned at him as if she would argue, but something in his face must have convinced her.

"Don't dwell on it too long or you'll lose your appetite," was all she said as she left.

Once he was alone he found he had no desire after all to walk the path again. Instead he sat and watched the shadows lengthen, then blend into one another. He had no flint to light the lanterns, so the room grew darker until the only light came from the sea-facing window, and that was dim. Tomorrow was another day, but who could say whether the Queen would have selected another Guardian by then, reducing his chances from four to only three...

When all the daylight was fully gone, he sighed, and began to get to his feet.

And then the moon rose.

* * *

Shoichi didn't fail the test, more by fluke than anything else, and he tried not to wince at the low score. It was worth it, he told himself. He'd texted Akemi first thing that morning.

_I've figured it out. Meet me at the hospital after school._

The response had been a series of smiley faces and exclamation marks that made him laugh, and made the rest of the day easier to bear. He wasn't sure how much credit he could take for solving the puzzle of the shard, given that all he'd done was accidentally fallen asleep with it under his pillow (and he wasn't sure whether that part was relevant or not, come to think of it), but he was holding the image of the moonlit labyrinth in his head, and he knew that he could walk it again in his mind's eye and bring the shard-bearer's soul with him.

As for the rest of the dream... he supposed those were the memories Sakaki had talked about, all mixed up in the shard and overlapping. Had that place been Atlantis? Or had it happened in some other time, after the island was lost beneath the waves? He had no way of knowing, but the girl in the dream had been so familiar he had half-expected to know her name when he woke up, and it had hurt him to realise that he didn't.

Akemi was almost bouncing on the spot when he arrived at the hospital. "You can do it?"

"I'm pretty sure," Shoichi said. "We just need to find her and get her alone."

"Oh, that should be easy enough," said Akemi breezily, thereby dooming them before they'd even begun.

Two hours later, after some valuable lessons had been learned about how big a hospital is, whether nurses were happy to direct random school children to visit people whose name they got wrong (not so much, it turned out), and the value of a good broom closet while waiting out all the millions of people who seemed to want to visit the shard-bearer, Luna was wishing they'd tried sneaking through a window in the middle of the night instead, and Sol had hatched some sort of plot involving the hospital fire alarms that he _really_ hoped she wasn't serious about.

"Then you get her alone in an elevator..."

"You don't use elevators when there's a fire alarm," Luna pointed out with what he felt was great restraint. "And anyway she's hooked up to all those machines. And I _don't want to kidnap her_ while you start a fire as a diversion, okay?"

"We have to do something or we're going to be in here all _night_!"

"Maybe we'll have to come back tomorrow, or-- wait." He elbowed Sol into silence as she started to protest. "I think her husband's leaving."

They watched eagerly as the grey-haired man folded his newspaper slowly, and bent to kiss his wife goodbye.

"Oh come on," muttered Sol, "get on with it."

"It's really touching that he's been here this whole time, when you think about it..."

"I don't care right now! I just want to get out of this closet!"

Luna couldn't argue with that. They waited until the man had made his slow way down the corridor, then hurried into the shard-bearer's room. Luna quickly went to the bed, while Sol stopped by the door to keep a look out. He heard her open her crest to give Sakaki a quick update, but then he stopped paying attention, because he saw the shard-bearer's face, and suddenly he knew why she'd seemed familiar.

It was the face of the girl in his dream, if you added forty years or so. It was easier to see when she was asleep like this, when some of the lines of age smoothed away. There were differences... this woman was Japanese, where the girl in his dream had looked European, but somehow there was no doubt in his mind as to the resemblance. And it made no sense, because he hadn't dreamed about her until _after_ he'd thought she looked familiar...

Luna shook himself and opened his own crest to take out the shard. Maybe it was some sort of side-effect of how hard he'd been trying to learn to cast the soul anchor before the Multitude attacked her. It didn't matter. What mattered was that now, at last, he could help her. He took a breath, as she'd told him to in the dream, and closed his eyes, and began to walk the labyrinth. The dream came back to him so strongly as he did that he almost felt himself moving, almost smelled the sea on the evening breeze, and almost heard her laughter from the beyond the stone walls of the meditation room...

"It's working," he heard Sol whisper, as if from a great distance.

He opened his eyes. The woman on the bed did the same, almost in unison. Luna realised that at some point he had taken her hand. She didn't seem perturbed to see him there. In fact, she smiled.

"Lys?"

Luna stepped back hurriedly. "Sorry?"

The woman blinked a few times and a frown crept onto her face, closely followed by alarm. "Wait... where am I? Who are you?"

"It's fine," Sol jumped in quickly, "you're fine now! You, um, you fainted in the street so they brought you to hospital. We called the ambulance so we came to check on you. Glad you're feeling better! We're leaving now!"

She grabbed Luna by the arm and dragged him out of the room before he could even start to respond.

"You went all glowy!" she was saying excitedly as she towed him into a stairwell and away from any awkward questions the ward nurses might ask. "It was so cool! You kind of lit up, and then she lit up, and then she started to _wake_ up... what did she say to you?"

"I-- I'm not sure," Luna said. "It didn't sound Japanese."

"She must have been confused. But you saved her!" Sol suddenly stopped and threw her arms around him. Luna almost fell down the stairs. "You did it! We can save the other ones now too!"

Relief broke over him like a wave and he hugged her back with unfeigned enthusiasm.

"Yes," he said, letting the strangeness of the woman and the dream slip away. "We can save them now."

* * *

He should have put the shard away as soon as they left the hospital room, Luna realised later, but in that moment, he had almost forgotten that it had a purpose other than being a means to return a lost soul. It felt cool in his hand, lighter, although there was still an energy to it, as if the iridescence of its surface had taken a tangible form. He was still holding it in one hand as they slipped out of the hospital, distracted by Sol talking to Sakaki through her crest, completely unprepared for any sort of attack.

He didn't even have time to raise his shield. The shadows rushed at them both with the force of a storm surge. Luna was knocked off his feet and thrown against a wall, aware of Sol tumbling past him as pain exploded through his back and shoulders. The shard flew out of his hand and hit the ground some distance away. He heard it land, but couldn't see it in the dark as he struggled to stand up. Putting any pressure on his right wrist caused more pain to lance up his arm, but he was able to scramble to his feet in time to see Neikos step out of the shadows. The face he wore this time was handsome and commanding, but the sneer he twisted it into undermined the authority he seemed to want to project.

"Enough playing around," he said. "Give me the shard, or I'll kill you." He smirked as if he'd thought of something funny. "Oh wait, I'm gonna kill you anyway. Never mind, then. I'll just take it off your dead bodies."

He brandished the obsidian knife. A trio of Spectres seemed to slip out of the air it cut through, vaguely human shaped, but with long, sharp blades where their hands and feet should have been. Luna tried to summon the shield, but when he raised his hands the pain in his wrist shattered his concentration, and then the Spectres were diving at him with murderous intent. Luna dodged backward, ducked, and tried to run, but there was a building at his back and a wall to the left...

Fire surged in front of his face, so close he felt the sting of its heat. One of the Spectres was caught in the full blast and burned to ash in a heartbeat. The others swerved, one losing an arm to the fire, and Neikos leapt back with a snarl.

Sol was leaning against a parked car in a way that immediately set off alarms in Luna's mind, a way that made him think she'd hurt herself badly. She was throwing her fire with one hand, the other gripping tightly onto the car to keep her upright, her mouth set in a tight line of pain. Luna started to run towards her, then remembered the shard, and stopped, looking around frantically. He couldn't see even a glimmer of light on the ground. One of the Spectres was coming right at him. He threw himself towards Sol, fetching up against the same car she was using for support, and choked out, "I call upon the moon, my liege..."

The shield sprang up around them both. The Spectre chasing Luna couldn't stop in time. When it collided with the glowing barrier, it dissolved into black soot with the suddenness of glass shattering. But the shield wavered at the impact, its pure white light faltering. For the first time, Luna wasn't sure how long he could keep it up, or how impervious it really was to attack. As if in answer to the unspoken thought, the final Spectre raked its inhuman claws across the surface of the shield, and for a second, dark lines broke through the barrier and the light flickered again.

At least Sol's flames showed no sign of stopping. Neikos was stalking towards them: Sol sent a jet of flame straight at his face. Neikos spun, pulling a cloak of shadow around him, but his movements weren't as graceful as he seemed to think. He stumbled when he came out of the spin, and a second gout of fire caught him unprepared. He barely staggered out of the way. Luna thought his hair was on fire. The third Spectre was caught in the backwash. Luna took a deep breath and tried to make the shield as strong as possible. For all his unnatural powers, Neikos had consistently been impulsive and uncoordinated. They would win this. He tried to ignore the pain in his back...

Then he saw movement beyond Neikos, back near where he'd first been attacked, a shadowy figure with a faint blue glow near his face, stooping to pick something up from the ground.

"No!" Luna yelled.

Sol threw an alarmed look at him. "What?"

"Kestrel!" Luna shouted, half at her, half at the distant figure already starting to run. "He's got the shard!"

"What?!" yelped Sol.

"What?!" Neikos echoed, turning to look. "Get away from that you little--"

Sol lobbed another fireball at Neikos's back, and shouted to Luna, "Go after him!"

"What about you?"

"I'm fine, I just can't _run_! I can deal with Neikos! _Get the shard!_ "

Sakaki had told him when he awakened that Sol was his leader. Luna hadn't really thought about it much since then. At least until now, when he found himself obeying her before he'd even had time to consider otherwise.

"Be careful!" he yelled over his shoulder as he ran.

The shield vanished as soon as he stopped concentrating on it. As he dodged past Neikos, the Archduke slashed at him with the obsidian knife, but had to duck out of the way of another of Sol's fiery deliveries. Then Luna was racing as fast as he could in the direction he'd seen Kestrel go. He thought for sure he'd lost him, but when he rounded the corner, Kestrel was still in sight, running down a straight street that didn't seem to offer any opportunity to turn off. 

Luna pushed himself as hard as he could go, ignoring the pain of his recent fall and the labouring of his lungs, but Kestrel was so _fast_. He'd outrun Sol before. There was no way Luna could catch him if Sol couldn't. 

Unless… he had no idea if it would work, and it was hard to get the breath when he was running full tilt, but he managed, "I call upon the moon, my liege…"

He _threw_ the shield towards Kestrel, willing it to take shape over _there_ instead of around himself. He could feel how weak it was at this point, but almost to his surprise, it worked. A faint dome sprang up around Kestrel and didn't move with him, forcing him to stumble to a stop so abrupt he almost fell down. Luna saw the blue flash of his visor as he looked back in dismay.

The shield flickered. Kestrel was doing _something_ , Luna didn't know what, but then the dome... vanished, like a bubble bursting. Luna almost tripped over his own feet. It felt like he'd been leaning on a door and suddenly whatever had been stopping it from opening had vanished, so he fell through the doorway like an idiot.

But he managed to keep his balance. He was close enough to reach out and _grab_ Kestrel, clumsy but determined. "Give it _back_ \--"

Kestrel ducked into some sort of martial art move, spinning towards him, and… then... stopped, staring at him. In the same moment, Luna froze in disbelief as he got a good look at Kestrel's face behind the visor. For a second time the world fell out from under him.

"Satoru?" he whispered.

Kestrel - Satoru - stared back at him, mouth open, colour draining from his face. Luna thought he started to say _Shoichi_ , in return, but then all at once he wrenched himself free from Luna's loosened grip. Without another word, he turned and ran, and this time, Luna couldn't make his legs work to follow. He wasn't even sure they were capable of holding him up for much longer.

_Satoru?_

The fleeing figure finally found a side street to duck into, and vanished. Luna started after him, started to run, and then found suddenly that he'd stopped again. He felt winded, as if Satoru had struck him instead of just staring at him and then running away. He thought he might throw up. There were definitely tears in his eyes, and he couldn't even have said why that was, whether it was anger or grief or maybe just shock, big and cold and inescapable.

He wasn't going to catch Kestrel now, Luna realised. And Sol was still fighting Neikos back there, and she was hurt. He turned and rushed back the way he'd come, looking desperately for some distant sign of fire lighting the night, but everything had gone ominously still.

He almost cried with relief when he came around a corner and crashed right into Sol, half-running, half-limping at the best speed she could manage.

"Luna!" They grabbed each other by the arms in an attempt to avoid collision, which mostly worked, although it rattled Luna's teeth. "Did you get it?"

Luna shook his head. He couldn't even begin to find the words. Sol groaned in disappointment, then peered at him, worried.

"Are you okay?"

"I…" 

_I know who Kestrel is. I know his real name. I have his_ email address _for pity's sake!_

How could it be Satoru? Luna's thoughts were still in such a whirl he could barely form a sentence. How could Satoru be the villain Sakaki had warned them about? It couldn't be right. It _couldn't…_ but Luna had seen his face too clearly. And seen the recognition on it. How had Satoru known it was him? The Guardian crests were supposed to make that impossible! But he'd dismissed the shield, too - did he have some sort of power that let him see through the disguise?

How could Satoru possibly be willing to do anything to get the shards, even leave an old woman to die…?

Luna couldn't reconcile it. He couldn't _deal_ with it. And he couldn't explain to Sol, not now. Not until he'd had a chance to try and make sense of it by himself.

"He got away," Luna said, and then, shaking himself, "Are _you_ okay? You're hurt!"

"Sprained my ankle," Sol said with a grimace. "Or maybe broke it, actually. I'm not sure."

"We need to get you back to the hospital," Luna said, alarmed by her casual attitude. "What about Neikos--"

"I set him on fire, and then I set him on fire again, and then he cried for his mommy and ran away," said Sol. "And I don't need to go to the hospital. It's already better. Didn't Sakaki tell you about that?"

"About what?"

"We heal quicker than normal. My ankle just feels like I twisted it now." She peered over his shoulder and made a face. "How's your back? You're covered in blood."

"I am?" Luna tried to crane his head back over his shoulder, but all he could make out was a glimpse of a dark stain. "It's... it doesn't hurt so much. I mean, it's still sore, but it feels like it happened a week ago or something..."

"Yeah, that's how it goes." Sol seemed to realise she was still holding onto Luna's arms, and gingerly let go, as if she wasn't sure she could stand on her own. "Didn't you notice that cut you got the first time you were attacked by Spectres? It was gone by the time we left the shrine. I was watching, it just sort of faded out."

"Oh." Luna had forgotten he'd even been hurt that time. All the talk of the Celestial Guard had driven it out of his head, and then when he'd come home, there hadn't been any sign of injury... "That's... that's good, right?"

"Better than having to explain to my mom why I've got a broken ankle," Sol said. She sighed. "So... we lost the shard again."

Luna flinched. "I'm sorry, I--"

"It's not your fault. We should've been more careful coming out of the hospital." Sol tested her weight on her injured foot and winced. "I guess they figured out we'd come back to try and help the shard-bearer." She brightened. "At least she's okay now. It would have been so much worse if they'd attacked before we went in..."

Except, Luna thought, he might have had the shard safely in his crest at that point, and Kestrel would not have been able to sneak up on them before darkness fell...

Satoru. Kestrel was Satoru. And that didn't make any sense. And Luna had let him get away...

"I should've stopped him," he mumbled.

"Wait, are you crying?" Sol peered at his face. Luna flinched back, rubbing self-consciously at his eyes, but Sol simply reached out and hugged him. "Don't cry! It's okay! It's not your fault he's a really fast runner! We saved that woman, right? That's the important thing. And if Kestrel's got the shard, at least Neikos doesn't have it. That's gotta be worth something. And next time we find a shard-bearer, we'll know what to do with the soul straight away, and we can take the shard away and hide it..."

Luna nodded, making no effort to step away. He told himself it was because he really needed a hug right now. He was guiltily aware that it was also the easiest way to avoid looking Sol in the face as he said, "Do you think Sakaki would mind if I went straight home instead of going to the shrine?"

"I don't care what she minds," Sol replied with spirit. "We can talk about it all tomorrow. I want a bath. And an ice pack." She paused. "Probably not at the same time."

Luna managed to laugh. Sol was right, he told himself as they began to walk slowly towards the train station. Saving the shard-bearer was the most important thing. And Kestrel _was_ hard to catch...

_But I caught him. I caught him and I let him get away._

And then, hard on the heels of that thought:

_What on earth happens now?_


	7. Reverberations

"Excuse me," Shoichi said, trying to hide how awkward he felt approaching a boy three years older than him for such a stupid reason, "do you mind if I sit here?"

The other boy looked up from his homework, and glanced around at the half dozen empty tables in the library in confusion.

"Can I ask why?"

Shoichi flushed, almost giving up on the whole idea, but desperation made him feel like blurting out the truth was the better option.

"If I sit by myself, this girl from my class will turn up in about five minutes, sit next to me, and just talk for the next hour. Nothing I say seems to stop her, and I really need to get my homework done. I thought if I was sharing a table with someone else she might not do it..."

The other boy looked momentarily taken aback, and then, to Shoichi's silent chagrin, deeply amused.

"She has a crush on you?"

Shoichi wasn't sure he could turn any redder, but his face seemed to be giving it a go. "I don't know! She just won't leave me alone and I don't want to upset her..."

The amusement turned sympathetic. "Of course you can sit here. Especially if you're not a talker. I come in here because I can never get anything done in the classroom, even though it's supposed to be quiet study. People throw _notes_ at each other."

He sounded so annoyed by this minor aspect of school life that it was Shoichi's turn to laugh. He sat down gratefully at the table.

"I'm Shoichi," he said, belatedly. "Thank you for this."

"Satoru," the other boy replied. "You're welcome."

It almost worked, too. When Mariko sidled into the library a few minutes later she visibly hesitated before approaching. Not that Shoichi was watching out of the corner of his eye or anything. He felt bad, but at the same time, she'd followed him to the library after school every day this week, and if he didn't get some work done today he was going to be in serious trouble...

To his dismay, she sat down, glanced shyly at Satoru, and then began her usual breathless rush of, 'hi Shoichi what did you think of that thing in class where...' In a whisper, this time. Which was somehow almost more annoying.

Shoichi cringed, all too aware that she was now distracting Satoru as well as him. Reluctant as he was to say anything that could come across as mean, he opened his mouth to speak up... but Satoru beat him to it.

"Excuse me," Satoru said quietly. When Mariko looked at him wide-eyed, he went on, "I really need to work. Please don't talk."

"Oh! I-- I'm sorry--"

"It's okay," Satoru said, smiling and putting an almost apologetic note into his voice. "Thanks."

To Shoichi's amazement, it worked. Mariko sat there for a couple of minutes, clearly not sure what to do with herself, before finally pulling out some homework of her own and getting on with it in silence. Shoichi didn't even mind when she quietly asked him a question or two about the problem sheet. In fact, he thought, if she would do this every time she came into the library, he'd quite enjoy her company.

That thought lasted almost exactly a week of sharing a table with Satoru, at which point Mariko followed him halfway home so she could spring a date request on him in front of a group of their classmates. Possibly she thought he would be too embarrassed to turn her down in front of an audience, or maybe she was just clueless, but either way it didn't work out well for her: Shoichi was so stunned he said the first thing that came into his head, which was, "No, thank you."

So then she burst into tears and ran off, and the rest of Shoichi's class knew about it within a day, and the girls all glared at him and the boys all thought it was hysterical and Shoichi felt horrible and really annoyed at the same time.

There was technically no need to go and sit at Satoru's table now, but he did it anyway out of habit. He hadn't intended to say anything, but Satoru glanced at him, frowned, looked again, and said, "Are you okay?" and then Shoichi ended up telling him all of it in a rushed and miserable run-on sentence.

Satoru said, "That sounds unpleasant. I don't know what else you could have done, though. I mean, either you go on a date with her when you're not really interested, which is unkind, or you turn her down, which you did. Asking people out always means taking the chance they say no. She'll get over it."

Which was all sensible, helpful advice, but the thing that really, _really_ mattered to Shoichi right then was that he didn't laugh at all.

* * *

Shoichi only got a good look at his back when he was undressing to get in the shower. The mess of healing scabs made him wince. No wonder there'd been so much blood on his costume: he must have taken half the skin off his shoulders when he scraped along the wall. Thank goodness for the magical healing... thing. Hopefully the injuries would all be gone by tomorrow. He watched closely in the mirror for a few minutes, trying to see them actually heal up in front of him, but if they did, it was so gradual he couldn't spot it.

Did the healing extend to infections? It seemed like a waste of time to douse the skin with disinfectant when it was already scabbed over. Anything that was going to get inside the wounds already had. So he'd better _hope_ the healing extended to infections. What about disease? Could he get sick, still? What was going to happen the next time he caught a cold? And what if something really bad happened, like... losing an arm or something? It couldn't possibly grow back, could it? No, that would be... surely that would be beyond even the power of the Guard. And really, _really_ hard to explain...

"I should probably try not to lose an arm," Shoichi said. He jumped at the sound of his own voice. He wasn't quite sure why he'd spoken the thought aloud, except maybe to drown out the part of his mind that was trying to get his attention with a continuous repetition of the phrase _Satoru is Kestrel! Kestrel is Satoru!_ "Which is good life advice in general, I guess."

He started to laugh at his own comment, then realised the laughter had a hysterical edge to it, and hurried under the shower with single-minded determination to get clean and get into bed before he had some sort of meltdown. For once, both his parents were in the house. He didn't really want to try and have a conversation with either of them right now, so he'd just said he was tired from studying all evening, grabbed something to eat, and fled to the bathroom at the earliest opportunity.

He wished he hadn't found it quite so easy to lie to them.

* * *

"You're often here very late," Satoru observed one evening.

"So are you," Shoichi replied, confused.

"Yes, but I live here," Satoru said. "I'm a boarder. My room's five minutes down the hall."

"Oh." Shoichi hadn't actually realised that. He should have guessed. Most of the people in the library after school tended to be boarders. "It's easier to stay here and then pick something up to eat on the way home than it is to go back earlier, cook, and get back into the right mindset for homework, to be honest."

Satoru's eyebrows shot up. "Do you live alone?"

"What? No, of course not. Why would you think that?"

"Don't your parents cook?"

"Oh, they usually don't get back until after me. They're lawyers."

"It sounds like you should be a boarder too," Satoru said after a pause. "At least that way the school gives you meals and cleans your room."

"Well, I live too close. It would be silly," Shoichi said defensively. "Besides, I'd never see my parents if I didn't go home."

"It kind of sounds like you never see them anyway."

Shoichi flushed, and for the first time ever felt annoyed with Satoru. "Look, what's your point?"

It was Satoru's turn to look embarrassed. "Nothing. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to... I was just surprised, that's all." Before Shoichi could say anything else, he hurried on, "It's not like I can talk, my parents technically have a house in Kobe but they've been living in Hong Kong the last few years."

"They have?"

"My father's company is based there." Satoru scowled briefly at his homework. "I'm supposed to be studying business and economics at university so I can take over someday."

Shoichi glanced at him. "You don't want to?"

Satoru hesitated. "Not really. I'd rather study engineering, or maybe computer science."

"Are you going to?"

"I haven't decided yet." Satoru hesitated again, then went on, as if confiding a secret. "I'd like to go to Tokyo, if I can get in. I really like the look of the university, and my father will be pleased enough he might not kick up too much trouble if I switch course."

"Of course you'll get in," Shoichi said with total honesty. Now he knew Satoru by name, he'd realised that he was almost always top of the results boards for his year. "And even if you don't, you should study what you want to study. I'm sure your father will get over it."

"Hmm. You haven't met him," Satoru said, but he looked like he'd needed to hear someone say it anyway. He added, "Thank you," and the warmth in his voice made Shoichi blush again, although this time he had no idea why.

* * *

The rain had apparently settled in to stay for the rest of the week. Akemi wasn't looking forward to sitting under an umbrella again, even though she'd remembered to bring a good big one from home this time. She was preoccupied with making sure all her books were well inside her bag where they wouldn't get wet, and didn't really notice Hana hovering by her desk until she spoke.

"Akemi?"

Akemi looked up. "Hmm?"

"Is... everything okay?"

"What do you mean?"

Hana hesitated for long enough that she had Akemi's full attention by the time she went on, "I mean... I hardly see you outside class at the moment. You're always rushing off. You say you need to study but you're getting lower grades than you usually do..."

Akemi flushed, and snapped before she could stop herself, "Hey, I'm doing my best! You sound like my mom!"

"No, I didn't mean it like that!" Hana bit her lip. "Just... who's that boy you keep meeting up with?"

"Shoichi? He's a friend. We study together sometimes."

That was even kind of true. Stake-outs with homework were becoming a regular thing. Shoichi helped her with history and she helped him with maths, at least until they had to shove everything into their bags and go do Guardian stuff. But Hana looked sad and worried at the same time, and that was _not_ okay, particularly when Akemi had to keep lying to her like this.

"I know I'm not doing so well at school," Akemi said. "That's why I'm trying to study more." Lies, lies, lies. "I'm sorry I haven't been around as much." At least that part was true. And at least she could think of something to sort of make up for it. "Are you busy this weekend? We could meet up for lunch and karaoke."

Hana smiled, relief replacing worry. "I'd like that! What time?"

After they'd made plans, Akemi hurried to the shrine, trying not to get too splashed by the puddles. The only thing worse than sitting under an umbrella in the rain was doing it with your shoes full of water. But when she reached the clearing, she found that Shoichi had beaten her to it.

"You found the tent!"

Shoichi poked his head out, got hit in the face by a large drop of water from one of Sakaki's branches, and immediately withdrew back inside.

"It was in our storage closet. Smells a bit like old shoes, but it doesn't have any holes in it."

Akemi quickly ducked into the small tent. It was only just big enough for the two of them to sit side-by-side, but just big enough was fine when it was raining this hard. Shoichi had set it up so the door faced Sakaki. There was a little pop-out panel that sheltered the door when it was open, and once Akemi was settled inside, she couldn't feel any rain reaching them. Shoichi had even brought along some dry cushions and an old blanket. It was positively luxurious compared to the last time they'd been here.

"You are the _best_ ," Akemi said. "Hey, Sakaki. How are you?"

"Damp," Sakaki replied, "and sadly I doubt I will fit in there with you. Luna has been telling me about your experience with the shard-bearer. I'm glad you were able to restore her soul: it gives us hope for the others who have already been targeted, if we can get their shards back."

"Right," Akemi said with a sigh. "Shards. We're not very good at holding on to them, are we?"

She had of course reported back to Sakaki that they'd lost the latest shard to Kestrel, but had saved the details for when they could meet up at the shrine. She gave a quick summary now.

"So you were right about Kestrel," Akemi finished. "He's after the shards too, and he didn't even try and help us fight Neikos."

"We know he has at least two of them," Shoichi said. He'd been uncharacteristically quiet so far, especially when Akemi got to the bit about him chasing Kestrel. She hoped he wasn't still feeling bad about it. "And we don't know where he's keeping them."

"He'll keep them close if he can," Sakaki replied. "If he isn't carrying them with him, he'll keep them wherever he lives. I've never been entirely sure of his exact powers, but he seems able to mislead and misdirect those who pursue him, so he will want to have the shards where he can take them and run if necessary."

"And then there's the Multitude," Akemi went on. "We don't know if Neikos has any of the shards. What would he do with them if he did? Does he have, like, a secret villain base somewhere we need to raid?"

"Unlikely," said Sakaki. "The Archdukes are... in general.... human. He cloaks himself in shadow when he does the Multitude's work, but he must have a place to sleep, and eat, and nurse his wounds. If he has kept the shards, they are likely to be in his home."

"Great, all we need to do is break into every house in Osaka then," Akemi muttered.

"What do you mean, _if_ he's kept them?" Shoichi asked. "Why wouldn't he keep them?"

"The Archdukes always have a leader," Sakaki said, "who is the first recipient of the Multitude's power. It is clear that Neikos is not this leader, so he may be passing the shards on as soon as they are collected. However, they often mistrust one another and struggle for power within their ranks. From what you have seen of Neikos, I would not be surprised if he were one to keep the shards for as long as he can to bolster his own position."

"Why is it clear he isn't the leader?" Shoichi asked.

"You've _met_ him, haven't you?" Akemi said.

Shoichi half-laughed, but he was still clearly focused on an answer to his question. "Sakaki?"

"The Archdukes take on names according to their rank and personality," Sakaki said after a moment. "The names vary, but the leader is always known by the same name, and it is not Neikos."

"What is it, then?" 

It was like Shoichi couldn't quite let anything go today, like he had to drag out an explanation for every nuance of what Sakaki said. It sort of made Akemi uncomfortable, while at the same time, she was glad he was paying attention to detail. She knew she wasn't always great at that.

"The leader of the Archdukes is Demogorgon," Sakaki said. "Do not use that name lightly. It has the echo of three thousand years in its speaking, and rumour has always had it that speaking it aloud outside a place of safety can draw the attention of the Multitude."

"Oh." Shoichi glanced around nervously. "Er... _this_ is a place of safety, right?"

"Yes, of course. These shrine grounds already have some protection in them from thespirits that were worshipped here. This clearing is guarded further by my power. We cannot be overheard and nothing can enter here, not even the Archdukes themselves, unless they first destroy me utterly."

"That's good to know," Akemi said, though she shivered at _destroy me utterly._ "So when we get the next shard, we bring it here, right?"

"Yes. It will be safe here. Neither the Multitude nor Kestrel will be able to find it or take it away."

" _If_ we get the next shard," Shoichi said.

"Nope." Akemi elbowed him to shake the distracted look off his face. " _When._ We know what to expect now. We've got this."

Shoichi hestitated, then nodded.

"Okay. I hope you're right."

* * *

Most of the time they were in the library together, they didn't talk, but there was something very comfortable about the silence. Occasionally Shoichi asked Satoru for help with something he was stuck on, and sometimes, if there was no-one else around to be distracted by it, they'd talk a little. It never went beyond basic pleasantries, but Shoichi still found himself looking forward to those occasional interludes. He noticed Satoru around at school a lot more these days, in some of his clubs, and between classes. They usually smiled at each other, but neither tried to elaborate on the sort-of-friendship that had developed.

One day, Shoichi started to wonder why. The age difference was one aspect, he supposed. It didn't seem to matter in the library, but outside, it was always very clear that they were in different cohorts within the school. Maybe it hadn't occurred to either of them that they _could_ be actual friends. Now, though, Shoichi found that he liked the idea. He had plenty of casual friendships in his class, but no-one he was really close to.

Acting on the thought was a whole other problem, of course. Anything he thought of saying that might indicate, 'hey, let's be better friends' seemed entirely too forward for a junior student to put to a senior.

He was still wrestling with the dilemma when Satoru unexpectedly solved it for him.

"I wanted to ask you something," he said as Shoichi was packing up to leave for the day.

"Yes?"

"Would you..." Satoru seemed uncharacteristically hesitant. "I was thinking maybe we could go and get something to eat one of these evenings? After we're done studying, I mean."

Shoichi had to take a moment to get his breath, which had suddenly gone out of him in a warm rush, before saying, "I'd like that."

A smile broke over Satoru's face, and something about _that_ made Shoichi's heart start racing.

"What about next week?"

"Sure," Shoichi said, hoping he sounded as casual as he was trying to sound. "I could do Thursday."

"That works for me."

"Okay." Shoichi finished putting his books in his bag. "See you tomorrow?"

"I won't be around tomorrow," Satoru said. "It's my birthday, and my parents are flying over."

"Oh! I didn't know. Happy birthday? For tomorrow."

"Thanks," said Satoru with another smile. "I'll see you on Monday, then."

* * *

"Seriously? This is it?" Akemi pulled a face. "Ick."

"I know." Shoichi had absolutely no desire to set foot in the seedy-looking strip club either, but even from across the street he could see how unnaturally dark it was inside. "I'm starting to feel like there's a pattern to the targets Neiko picks."

"What do you mean?"

"Er..." Shoichi tried not to blush. "Well, there were a lot of girls at the gym. Wearing shorts and things. And there was that swimming pool. And the massage place."

" _Ew,_ " said Akemi as the penny dropped. _"_ That is so gross."

"He's stealing people's souls, did you think he was a nice guy otherwise?"

"No, but still..." Akemi shuddered. "I didn't set him on fire enough last time. I won't make that mistake again."

Shoichi hesitated, not particularly inclined to say anything on Neikos's behalf, but... there were other considerations.

"Have you thought about what will happen if you get him?"

Akemi blinked. "Huh?"

"Sakaki said they were human," Shoichi went on carefully. "So far every time you attack him, he uses the shadows to defend himself. But what if you burn all those away and hit him directly? Can you... imagine what your fire would do to a normal person?"

When Akemi didn't immediately answer, he glanced over. The stricken look on her suddenly pale face made him almost wish he hadn't said anything at all.

"I hadn't thought of that," she said in a small voice. "But... I can't _not_ attack him, can I? Not when he's doing all... all _this_."

"No," Shoichi said, "of course you can't. He certainly seems happy to try and stab us whenever he gets the chance, and we can't let the Multitude just do what they want. I just... I don't know..."

He took a deep breath. 

"Maybe we have to kill him," he said, the words terrifying in their starkness. "Maybe that's what we have to do to save the world. I just didn't want... you to do it by accident, without even realising it would happen."

Akemi nodded, staring at the ground between them. "Thanks. You're right. I... I need to be aware of that... as a possibility. It's... easy when it's just shadows, you know?"

"I know."

Akemi shook herself, stood up straighter, and forced a smile.

"Maybe we can get him in a choke hold and hand him over to the police or something," she said lightly. "Come on, let's go get rid of this haunt so Creepy Uncle Neikos can't perv on the strippers any more."

Shoichi managed a laugh that wasn't much more convincing than her smile, and followed her lead towards the building, silently hating himself. It wasn't a _lie_ , was the thing, he really had thought she needed to hear it, and by her reaction he had clearly been correct, but his motives...

His motives had little to do with Neikos, and far more to do with the horrifying thought of what Guardian Sol's fire would do to Satoru if it hit him. And he still hadn't told her, or Sakaki, that he knew Kestrel's true identity. He felt like a traitor for keeping quiet, but he didn't know what else to do.

Sakaki had said Kestrel would keep the shards close to him - in his home, probably. And Shoichi had his real name, his email address, a scattering of details about his life. He might be able to use those to find out where Satoru lived. And then... what? Would they go and break in? Confront him? _Fight_ him? Set him on fire?

No. Shoichi couldn't even consider using his knowledge against Satoru that way. In all honesty, he still couldn't entirely accept the idea that Satoru was Kestrel. He kept thinking about the time they'd spent in the library together at school, and how soft-spoken and polite Satoru had been about everything. Shoichi couldn't imagine how that same quiet, hard-working boy could be the man now willing to leave an old woman to die without a soul. 

There had to be something he was missing, something Sakaki didn't know. And until he found out what it was, he couldn't bring himself to blow Satoru's cover. If he could just get Satoru to talk to him...

He'd sent an email, eventually, after agonising over it for days. There had been no reply. He'd sent another one since, and then a third, each a variation on 'could we talk?'. Satoru hadn't responded to any of them. Shoichi wondered if he'd even read them. Maybe he'd blocked Shoichi's email address, deleted their conversation, and was busy getting on with being Kestrel, hunting shards and dodging the Multitude and the Guard alike. Maybe he'd already moved on.

It... wouldn't be the first time, after all. Shoichi still remembered vividly the week he'd come to the library every day and found no sign of Satoru anywhere. They hadn't exchanged numbers or emails at that point, so he had no way of finding out what was going on. He didn't see Satoru for days, until almost a week after the day they'd agreed to hang out after studying, when they bumped into each other briefly at a club. Satoru had barely seemed to see him. He'd apologised for vanishing, but said he wouldn't be in the library much now as he had so much to do that he preferred to work from his room. He'd said nothing about hanging out, and Shoichi had fallen far too easily into the position of respectful junior, politely wishing him luck in his exams and... letting it go without asking any questions.

The sting had taken a long time to fade, longer than he would have expected, even though he had been able to see with his own eyes in the weeks and months that followed just how stressed and harried Satoru now looked, and how obvious it was that he was spending every waking minute working as hard as he could. Eventually, some time after Satoru had left - to go to Tokyo, Shoichi had thought - he'd put it behind him and moved on. It was nothing personal, he told himself. Satoru just hadn't had time to hang around with a junior student once he got that close to his exams. And when they'd met again on the train, and Satoru had seemed as eager to resume their friendship as Shoichi, he'd taken it as proof that he'd been right, that it hadn't been about him.

But now... silence, and once again Shoichi could only guess at what could be going through Satoru's head. It hurt a lot more this time. Maybe because he'd felt like he was being given a second chance. Maybe because somehow in a few weeks of emailing he had begun to feel even closer to Satoru than when they had been in school. 

Maybe because he kept seeing the look on Satoru's face, the moment he'd recognised Shoichi, and couldn't pretend it wasn't the look of someone who had just been _betrayed_ in a way Shoichi didn't understand and had never intended.

* * *

When the clock ticked over to 3AM, Akemi figured she just wasn't getting any sleep tonight. Or possibly ever. So she got up and tried to do some homework.

Her school wasn't the kind that went running to a student's parents the second they failed a test, but the three papers with their terrible, accusing grades were burning a hole in her conscience from where she'd stuffed them into a drawer. There were others that she'd barely passed. Even in her good subjects, the lack of work she was doing outside school was starting to show. It wasn't that she wasn't smart - she wouldn't boast about it, but Akemi knew she was pretty smart - but no amount of inborn intelligence could make up for the fact that all her tests required her to have memorised very specific facts each week. Sometimes she got lucky and hit a topic she knew already, but more often recently she'd found herself staring at the paper, a cold feeling in her stomach, and wondering who the heck cared about the exact dates of the reign of Emperor What's-His-Name anyway.

She set herself doggedly to learn her English vocabulary list, which she'd always found pretty easy, but after ten minutes, she realised she'd just been reading the same word over and over again and she still hadn't the faintest idea what it meant.

She let her head fall onto the desk with a soft thud and a groan. After a moment, she lifted it, and looked over at her Guardian crest, lying by her pillow.

It... wasn't supposed to be like this. Finding out you were special, finding out you had a purpose, finding out you had actual _magical powers_... it was supposed to fix everything. It was supposed to make your life better. It was supposed to be _fun_.

It wasn't supposed to wreck your grades right before you needed to get into University, or leave you lying awake thinking about whether or not you were going to have kill another human being.

She'd made that joke about the police, but after they'd cleared the haunt - after she'd waved goodbye to Shoichi and rushed home to try and get a bit of homework done before bed - she'd realised there was nothing the police could _do._ What crime could they charge Neikos with, whoever he was? Even if they believed all the stuff about the Spectres and the Multitude, which... Akemi wasn't particularly convinced they would. They would have no reason to put him behind bars. And would that even work, on someone with the power of the Multitude behind him?

What could she and Shoichi do with Neikos if they caught him? Tie him up? And put him where? Leave him in the clearing with Sakaki? Bring him sandwiches and make him sleep in Shoichi's tent? How would they stop him escaping? What if the other Archdukes came looking for him, and got through Sakaki's guard because he was already in there, and _destroyed her utterly_...

But then what other options did that leave? Could they frighten him off? Hurt him badly, scare him so he decided not to pursue the shards any more? Akemi felt sick at the thought. But even worse... what if they had to _kill_ him, as Shoichi had so bluntly suggested? It... wouldn't be pretty, if she burned him alive. She didn't _want_ to burn him alive, even though he was working with the Multitude.

Sakaki had said the Archdukes were human, but Akemi hadn't thought about what that meant, not until Shoichi had pointed it out. A part of her resented him for that. It had been better not knowing, better not thinking about the consequences as she flung fireballs at the mass of shadow that hid Neikos's true form.

But it wouldn't have been better to only find out about the consequences when it was too late. Shoichi was right. She couldn't hold on to any anger aimed in his direction. And he'd been so quiet this last week, since losing the second shard. It was obvious he blamed himself for letting Kestrel get away.

Kestrel... he was human too, according to Sakaki. Akemi had just been throwing fire at him without even thinking about it. Thank goodness he'd dodged. Except... they were supposed to stop him, too, weren't they? They were supposed to get the shards. She had to choose between attacking him and letting him get away...

"Why don't I have the power to just fix it?" she whispered aloud, staring at her uncompleted homework. "It's all magic, isn't it? Why can't I just make Neikos not evil, or wave a wand and put him in prison? Why can't all the enemies just be Spectres?"

Her homework didn't have an answer for her. For a moment she was tempted to pick up her crest and contact Sakaki... but this didn't feel like the time for another conversation about what powers Sakaki did or didn't have. And Sakaki knew... Sakaki knew what the Guard had to do. Akemi was pretty sure Sakaki didn't like it either, but she had not relented in her assertion that they must fight the Multitude no matter what.

Her next impulse was to grab her phone and message... who? Shoichi? She didn't want to make him feel any worse than he already did. She was supposed to be the leader. She had to deal with this stuff.

Hana? But oh, no, the thought of telling Hana... the thought of laying this on her, of saying, "I might have to kill someone"... that was just unbearable. Impossible. That wasn't going to happen. It wouldn't be fair.

"I guess it's just me, then," Akemi said. She closed her eyes for a long breath in, and out, and then she picked up her pen and started copying out the words she needed to learn by heart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Would it surprise anyone if I said this chapter has made me want to write an AU of my own story? No? Okay...


	8. Wish Upon a Star

Even after two years without incident, gym class still made Hikari nervous. No-one had ever seemed to notice how careful she was about changing, or at least they hadn't said anything, but she always rehearsed her responses in her head anyway. It was a relief to get into the sports hall and forget about it until the class was over.

At least, it normally was. Today she slowed to a stop as she reached the entrance, a shiver going down her spine. The girl behind her almost tripped over her.

"Sorry!" Hikari hastily moved forward again, but found herself unable to step over the threshold. She turned to the girl impatiently waiting for her to move, and asked, "Why is it so dark in there?"

The girl stared at her like she had two heads, and Hikari felt the familiar rush of terror that came from being noticed, the fear that it would lead to questions or guesses or accusations.

"It isn't dark," said the girl. "What's the matter with you?"

"I... um..." Hikari stepped to the side. "You go on."

The girl did without a pause. She didn't seem to care about the shadows in the hall. It was a big room without windows, and it looked to Hikari as if the lights weren't working properly, but no-one else seemed to notice. They were doing all the usual things that people did before gym class - at least, as far as Hikari could tell in the darkness - and they didn't seem to be having any trouble seeing what they were doing.

_Is something wrong with my eyes?_

But when she looked back out of the gym, the school hall looked perfectly normal. The last few students were moving past her. Their teacher, bringing up the rear, looked at Hikari quizzically.

"Are you all right?"

"Um..." Hikari had never tried to get out of any class, even the ones she really didn't like, but she was suddenly completely sure that she couldn't go into that room. "I don't feel well. I think I might be sick."

It wasn't exactly untrue. The darkness turned her stomach somehow. The teacher looked concerned. She put a hand to Hikari's forehead briefly, then shook her head.

"Well, you don't have a fever, but let's not take the chance of you throwing up in the middle of dodge ball, shall we? Go and see the nurse. If she says you can come back to class, you know where to find us. Otherwise get some rest."

Hikari nodded, feeling herself turning red in a mixture of guilt and relief, and fled back to the changing room. At least she was alone to put her uniform back on this time, which made things go faster. She almost started to feel like she was being silly, except when she stepped back out into the corridor and glanced towards the gym, it was now so dark she couldn't even see anyone inside.

She hurried to the nurse's office and spent the rest of the period staring at the ceiling with an unneeded bucket at her side, worrying that something was wrong with her that lying in a quiet office couldn't fix.

* * *

"Ugh, this guy and gyms," Sol muttered as they peered around the doorway into the dark, cavernous space beyond. "Seriously, so gross."

"This seems weird, though," Luna said. "It's a middle school. It's just a bunch of kids running around, it's not like people are working out or wearing skimpy outfits."

"Says a boy who has never had to wear bloomers in gym class," Sol said. "Maybe Neikos, you know... likes young girls."

Luna looked appalled for a moment, before his analytical side seemed to kick in. "Surely in that case he'd have targeted the changing rooms, not the sports hall?"

"I guess so." Sol knew she was kind of snappy today, but lack of sleep and added stress would do that to a person. "I don't feel like looking for too many excuses for him, to be honest."

"Right." Luna sent an apologetic look her way. "Let's get rid of it, shall we?"

"Good plan."

It wasn't a well-established haunt. Now that Sol had seen a few of them, she was starting to recognise when the Spectres had been in a place a long time. This looked like Neikos had only sent them within the last week or so. It was odd that they weren't being more stealthy about it. Normally Sakaki couldn't sense the Spectres until they had absorbed enough of people's souls that they couldn't keep themselves hidden, but she'd picked this one up almost immediately. They had to wait until all the evening clubs cleared out before they could sneak into the school, which wasn't too far from Luna's, but they hadn't met with any opposition on the way.

Maybe Neikos was getting careless. Maybe they'd rattled him. Sol hoped so. It might make him easier to deal with when they eventually had to confront him head on. She got on with burning out the Spectres that had lodged themselves in the vents and corners. The flames were cathartic at least.

"Try not to burn the gym down," Luna said dryly. Sol was about to snap at him when she realised that there were no more Spectres to destroy. "It's not even your school."

"What, would it make it okay if it was?"

Luna laughed, and Sol let the flames die out, checking as she did that nothing had ignited unexpectedly. If Luna was gently teasing her like that, though, everything was probably fine. He was getting very good at spotting any stray fire and extinguishing it before it could get out of control. It sometimes made Sol feel a bit guilty that most of his job, in the absence of shard bearers, was apparently cleaning up after her, and at the same time, she was sort of envious that he didn't have to worry about accidental arson.

"How does it look?"

"I can't see any more shadows. Or feel the Spectres." Luna seemed to be more sensitive to the presence of the Multitude than her, as well. "I think we're good."

"Well, that was easy." Sol found she was feeling more cheerful at the realisation that for once, something had been straightforward. They slipped out of the gym and headed for the school exit. "Hey, want to go get ice cream or something to celebrate?"

"I should really catch up on homework..." Luna started, then seemed to change his mind. "Actually, I'm never going to catch up on homework. Ice-cream sounds good, let's do it."

"Awesome." Sol peered around a corner to check for roaming teachers, then grinned at her fellow Guardian. "I know this great place."

* * *

Akemi's idea of a "great place" turned out to be crammed into the corner of the food court in one of the biggest tower-block shopping malls in Osaka, but Shoichi couldn't argue that the ice-cream was very good. He hadn't quite expected to end up with such a big, cream-and-syrup covered concoction, but the uncharacteristic indulgence was making him feel better than he had for at least a week. It was so... normal. And kind of childish. In a good way.

"We should do this more often," he said.

Akemi nodded enthusiastically, busy with a large spoonful of ice-cream.

Shoichi happened to glance over the food court, paused, and frowned.

"Those girls are staring at you," he said quietly. The tension he'd momentarily discarded slipped back. "Do you know them?"

Akemi turned in her seat with no attempt at subtlety, but before Shoichi could worry about that, she laughed.

"Yeah, they're in my class." She waved at the girls. They smiled and waved back, going back to their own conversation with only occasional glances in Akemi's direction. "They're probably wondering why I wasn't at track today."

"You missed track?" Shoichi said, dismayed. "You should have said it was today, we could have waited a bit longer to go to the haunt..."

"Well, I didn't know how long it would take." Akemi shrugged. "Anyway, we wouldn't be having ice-cream if I'd done that, would we?"

"That's true." Shoichi took another spoonful of his own sundae, deciding that if Akemi wasn't worried about missing her favourite club, he wouldn't make a big deal out of it. "Oh, did you have fun on Saturday? With Hana?"

"Yes!" Akemi replied with a big smile. "We did so much karaoke we couldn't talk for an hour afterwards! So we were sitting at this table in the restaurant writing notes to each other and it was so funny!"

Shoichi laughed. "That sounds great."

"It was really nice." Akemi looked wistful. "I feel like I haven't seen Hana properly for ages, even though we're in class together every day."

"You... haven't told her about the Celestial Guard then?" Shoichi asked cautiously.

"No." Some of the light went out of Akemi for a moment. "I can't... I don't want to... not yet, anyway."

"Okay." Shoichi quickly changed the subject. "Um... so I was thinking about the tent. If we're going to find more Guardians, we'll need a bigger one."

"I guess so." Akemi frowned. "Sakaki hasn't said anything about sensing anyone, though. I wish they'd hurry up. Except... then I feel kind of selfish, you know?"

Shoichi nodded. More Guardians would mean maybe they could take it in turns to track down Spectres, and maybe he and Akemi could have a few more evenings off... but it would mean other teenagers having to fit the Celestial Guard into their lives, with all that entailed. Although... would the other Guardians be the same age as him and Akemi? He'd just sort of assumed... but maybe they would be older, and have more free time?

"I wonder if--" he started to say, to share the thought with Akemi, when he felt the tugging sensation that meant Sakaki was trying to reach him.

Akemi pulled her crest out and opened it. She was a lot more relaxed than he was about waving it about in public, apparently confident that the magic Sakaki had talked about would hide it from prying eyes. She seemed to be right, too. Shoichi had accidentally left his on the desk at school one time, and no-one had even seemed to notice, but he still took care to hide it under his uniform every day.

"We're here," Akemi said, putting the crest between them on the table. "What's up?"

_"Nothing you need attend to tonight,"_ Sakaki said, and Shoichi breathed a sigh of relief. _"But something odd is happening. I am sensing even more haunts, weak and unguarded, like the one you just destroyed, in many places throughout the city. It is strange for Neikos to spread his Spectres so thin for so little reward, and stranger still that they are not hidden from me. Especially since I also sense the first traces of another shard-bearer, whom I would expect to be his priority."_

"I don't like the sound of that," Akemi said.

"Some sort of diversion?" Shoichi suggested. "Hoping to keep us busy with the haunts while he goes after the shard-bearer?"

"Maybe. But if the haunts are so weak and easy to destroy..."

"Maybe he's trying to split us up," Shoichi said after another moment's thought. "To get one of us to go after the shard-bearer while the other one deals with the haunts?"

_"That is a very likely possibility,"_ Sakaki said. _"Together you outmatch him, but he may hope to get the upper hand if he confronts one of you alone. He is not wrong that you would be vulnerable... your powers are still undeveloped.Take care to stay together."_

"What about the shard-bearer?" asked Akemi. "Can you tell who it is yet?"

_"Not yet."_

"Any chance it's another Guardian?"

_"I cannot tell."_

"Okay," said Shoichi. "I guess we'll just need to be ready for action."

He hoped he sounded as calm as he was trying to. His heart rate had picked up as soon as Sakaki had mentioned the shard-bearer. They hadn't seen Kestrel since that night at the hospital... but if there was another shard in play, Shoichi had no doubt he'd be there. And he still didn't know what he was going to do if... or, more likely, _when_... he found himself face to face with Satoru again.

"We're always ready for action," Akemi said cheerfully. "And ice-cream. I am always ready for ice-cream."

Shoichi laughed, and let her confidence buoy him up. He didn't know what he'd do without Akemi's unshakable optimism. It was, he thought, the one definite, inarguable good thing that had come from being told he was a Guardian... he'd met Akemi. And he'd never realised how much he needed her until she was there, dashing into his life and brightening everything she touched.

* * *

Hikari didn't get to see Sota as much as she'd like since she'd moved schools, but it was always worth it when they managed to meet up. Today when he saw her from their usual park bench, he waved and held up a bag that made her rush the last few metres to where he was sitting.

"You really brought it?"

"Yep!" Sota grinned at her excitement. "Well, who else was I going to practise on? All the other girls I know think I'm weird."

"You're definitely weird," Hikari said cheerfully. "But not the way they mean."

"Wow, thanks," Sota said, but he was still grinning, and Hikari knew the flip comment meant as much to him as the phrase 'other girls' did to her. "Shall we go?"

They headed for the cheap karaoke place two blocks away from the park. Hikari wasn't a huge karaoke fan, but that wasn't the point. The point was that a karaoke parlour was somewhere two fourteen-year-olds could pay a small amount of money for a quiet room and free sodas. It wasn't private - there were big windows on all the booths, probably to avoid any _other_ reasons two teenagers might try to get a room together - but it wasn't like being on display out in the park or in a mall, either. Plus, the food was cheap too, and pretty good, and there was wifi. It was their default hang-out spot when they just wanted to spend some time together, even if spending time together meant getting their laptops out and playing online games while in the same room for a few hours.

Today, though, Hikari could hardly hold still with excitement as they filled their soda cups and headed for the smallest, cheapest room. Sota laughed at her, but she could tell he was pleased. When he opened the bag, it was all she could do not to stick her face into it like a kid at Christmas.

"So, it's pretty basic stuff," Sota said as he began to take the small pots and tubes out and lay them on the table. "I don't want to buy the expensive ones until I'm good at it. But I got some eyeshadow and lipstick that will look good with your hair, I think, and we can try mascara and eyeliner if you're up for it..."

Hikari picked up one of the little plastic compacts and grinned at the name on it. "Candyfloss?"

"Hey, it's not my fault they give everything such cutesy names." Sota pulled a mirror out from the bottom of the bag and set it up on the table. "Half the time it sounds like something you should eat, not put on your face."

Hikari laughed, looking at a tube of 'Cinnamon Sugar' lipstick. "Does it taste like cinnamon?"

"I don't know, I haven't tried that one yet." Sota picked up a bottle of liquid foundation and a sponge. "Do you want to try by yourself first, or shall I do you?"

Hikari hesitated, because oh, she _wanted_ to try it herself... but she was pretty sure she'd make a mess of it. "Can you do it?"

"Of course! And I promise not to make you look like a zombie."

Hikari grinned, and scooted around on the seat so Sota could start patting the makeup onto her face. The 'acceptable' part of his hobby was doing stage makeup for his school performances and the odd flashmob, and Hikari knew he could do an excellent zombie when he wanted to. People were... less understanding about a teenage boy who loved 'normal' makeup.

"It will all come off, won't it?" she said, suddenly gripped by anxiety. "Before I go home?"

"Yes, don't worry. I've brought lots of cleaning wipes, and a bottle of cleanser too, so if you need to you can wash your face properly." Sota put the sponge down and picked up a large brush. It tickled when he dusted it over Hikari's face, but not enough to make her flinch. "Your mom still won't let you?"

"Yeah."

"It's weird how she's fine with everything else, but not makeup."

"I know!" Hikari let some of her frustration out with a big sigh. "I feel so ungrateful for even feeling upset about it, when she and Dad have been so great, but at the same time..."

"Maybe it's just an age thing," Sota said. "I mean, my older sister didn't start wearing it until recently." He put the brush down and picked up a smaller one. "Close your eyes."

"Maybe." Hikari did as she was told, and giggled a little as more ticklish sensations were applied to her eyelids. She hesitated, and then said something she would never have said out loud to anyone except Sota. "But I think it _is_ kind of that... she feels like it would be weird to teach her son to use makeup."

"Oh, it would _totally_ be weird," Sota said, deadpan. "I mean, look at me! But she doesn't have a son anymore, she has a daughter. She knows that really. She probably doesn't even realise she's thinking it."

"Yeah, you're right." Hikari smiled, eyes still closed. "Thank you."

"You're welcome. Now, do you want to go bold or natural to start with?"

* * *

They had a great time with the makeup. Hikari even tried putting some on herself, with tips from Sota. She liked the way it made her look older and more sophisticated (well, it did when Sota put it on her - her own efforts were a bit more haphazard). It was hard not to feel sad when Sota packed it all up again in the bag.

All except one little pot of lip gloss, which he held out to her.

"You can ask your mom," he said. "Or just wear it in secret in your room where no-one can see. Like a rebel."

Hikari giggled, but she was touched and happy as she took the little gift. They were laughing and teasing each other as they left the karaoke place, still having a great time, until suddenly, Hikari wasn't. All at once she was scared.

She couldn't exactly explain why. There were people out on the road, just normal-looking salarymen in suits, standing around, but somehow they made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. The sun was just going down. It wasn't dark yet, but it felt darker than it should be. She shivered.

"Is it going to rain?" she asked hesitantly.

"I don't think so..." Sota stopped to look up at the sky. "No, it's clear. Why?"

"It seems too dark."

Saying it out loud made Hikari remember the sports hall with a jolt of unease. She'd pretty much decided she'd just been ill at the time, especially when everything looked completely normal the day after, but this felt... this felt like the same thing. Maybe she was ill again? But some little-used instinct was telling her they should turn right around and go back into the safety of the brightly-lit karaoke parlour...

Sota shot her a questioning look. "Are you okay?"

"I... don't know." Hikari glanced nervously at the nearest bystander. He was reading a newspaper. Except there was something... funny about his clothes? "Let's hurry up and get to the station."

"Okay." Sota was still looking at her like he could see something was wrong, but didn't know what, exactly. Hikari didn't either, so she couldn't explain. "Come on then."

They started walking quickly along the road. For a few seconds, Hikari felt like everything was going to be okay - like she'd just been imagining things - but then she saw, out of the corner of her eye, that the man they'd just walked past had put down his newspaper and started walking along behind them. There was something wrong with the way he walked, too. He kind of... glided. And shouldn't the streetlights ahead of them be on by now? And why was it so quiet, apart from the silent men in suits, and now she came to think about it, what were they doing standing around at this time on a Saturday...?

"I... I think we should..." Hikari started, but she didn't get the chance to say that they should run. The shadows struck first.

Two of the salarymen rushed up behind them suddenly and grabbed hold of Sota, dragging him away from Hikari. She tried to scream, but she was so shocked it only came out as a gasp. The salarymen didn't look like men now. They were too tall and thin, their arms too sinuous as they pinned Sota against a nearby wall. From the gap between two buildings, something insect-like unfolded itself to twice the height of a person and moved towards Hikari with a horrible clattering, skittering sound as its sharp-tipped legs hit the pavement. She managed to scream then, but it seemed tiny and pitiful in the silence around them. Sota was yelling at the men - creatures - that held him, asking them what they wanted, they could have his wallet if they liked, just leave them alone... but Hikari couldn't tear her gaze from the thing advancing on her with terrible intent. She didn't think it wanted her wallet. She thought it probably wanted to eat her. She somehow found the courage to take a shaky step backwards, but that only seemed to spur it into action. It leapt towards her and Hikari shut her eyes and this time really _really_ screamed...

There was a scraping thud like something hard hitting a wall, and then scrabbling. Hikari's eyes flew open in time to see the insect-like monster reeling back from a bright, white shield of light in front of her. Someone grabbed her arm and pulled her quickly backward, past a boy in a pale blue uniform of some sort who had his hand out like he was throwing something.

"But... but my friend..."

"He'll be okay," said the girl who was still holding onto her arm. "They're not trying to hurt him, just... take something from him. We'll make sure he's okay."

She sounded almost like she was trying to convince herself as much as Hikari, which didn't exactly inspire confidence, but what could she do? None of this made sense and Sota was still over there with the shadow creatures... Hikari looked at the girl beside her. She seemed to be a few years older than Hikari, wearing a red and orange version of the boy's outfit. She was watching the shadows intently, only glancing at Hikari to make sure she was still moving back.

"Luna?" she said. "Have you--?"

"Got it," the boy said. "This time I've got it."

Hikari couldn't see what was happening to Sota, but she heard him scream, and despite herself she tried to run forward. The other girl's grip on her arm tightened and held her firmly in place.

"I know," she said quietly. "It's horrible. I promise he'll be okay. I promise."

"Who... who are you?"

"Guardian Sol. We fight those things."

"Like... some sort of flashmob thing?" Hikari said, grasping at any shred of logic she could find. "Is this a game?"

"Ha, that's what I said, too," said Sol. "But it really isn't."

There was a flare of light above and beyond the glimmering shield. The boy - Luna - shouted, "That's it!" and started to run towards where Sota had been.

Sol let go of Hikari's arm and sprang forward. "No, you protect her, I'll get it!"

For a second Luna seemed torn, "But--"

"We are _not_ letting her get hurt!"

Luna pulled back, taking Sol's place at Hikari's side. And Sol... did something... and suddenly there were flames driving back the shadows, glorious light in the unnatural darkness. The monster that had attacked Hikari was scrambling backwards away from the heat, and in the firelight she could see Sota slumped against the wall, head lolling.

"Sota--!"

"Keep close to me," Luna said, taking her by the arm and moving sideways around Sol's flames. "We'll get over there so he's under the shield too. Sol can handle the Spectres."

"Spectres?"

"Those shadow things." He glanced at her with a worried frown. "Er... this must all seem pretty weird to you."

Hikari almost started laughing hysterically, but she was so worried about Sota, she couldn't. "Weird? This isn't just _weird_ , I _like_ things that are weird, this is... this is _horrible!_ And... and _impossible!_ "

"I can't really argue with that..."

Luna gently steered her a few more feet, and then all at once they were next to Sota. Hikari immediately dropped to her knees to check if he was okay. He must have been unconscious or something, because he was groggily lifting his head even as she got to him, and seeing him sit up and look around was enough to make her cry, even though apparently giant impossible shadow monsters didn't.

"What... what happened...?"

"I don't know. Something attacked us..."

"Did you call the police?"

"It's... it's not really that kind of thing..."

She glanced at Luna for help, but Luna, though he seemed to be keeping the glowing shield in place, was staring very intently at a rooftop across the road.

"What kind of thing _is_ this...?" she asked.

"He's going to go over the rooftops towards the intersection," Luna said softly. It took a moment for Hikari to realise he was talking to himself, not her. "He'll get behind Sol..." Now he did look at her, worry and guilt on his face. "I have to go."

"But the shadows..."

"They're running away from Sol - that way. You're safe now. Go the other way and get out of the area."

"But what..."

"I'm sorry, I can't stay!" The shield vanished, and Luna began to run after Sol. "I have to make sure the shard is safe!"

"Shard?" 

He was already out of earshot. Hikari shrank back against the wall, but after a moment, she realised that Luna was right: there was nothing nearby that wasn't a normal part of the street. In fact, the streetlights were coming on, oddly out of sequence, as if they had been surprised by the fall of dusk. There were some scorch marks on the road that could easily be mistaken for tire marks... and Luna was already almost around the next corner.

Sota was holding his head. "Did they hit me?"

"What?" Hikari looked at him, and when she looked back, Luna had vanished too. "No, they..."

_They did what, exactly?_

The shadows were gone. There were normal people coming up the road. One of them had already noticed Hikari and Sota by the wall and was hurrying in their direction. Hikari hung for a second in agonising indecision, before doing something she'd promised herself she'd never do: lie to her best friend.

"Yes," she said. "I think they were muggers? They're gone. Are you okay?"

"Did they get my stuff?"

"Um... no." 'The bag of makeup was lying on the ground next to him. His schoolbag was still on his shoulder. "I don't think they... took anything."

_Except the 'shard'... whatever that was...?_

"Not very good muggers then," said Sota with a weak grin that vanished when he got a good look at her face. "Are you okay? They didn't hurt you or anything?"

"No," said Hikari, looking one last time in the direction where Sol and Luna had vanished. "No, some people... saved us."

"You make it sound like Batman or something."

"Yeah," said Hikari. "That's kind of what it was like."

* * *

Even as he ran after Sol, Luna had a sinking feeling it was hopeless. If that had been Kestrel he'd seen on the roof, he had a headstart as well as being faster. But he had to try... they couldn't lose another shard. And he was terrified of what would happen if Sol and Kestrel fought...

It turned out he had a better chance than he'd thought. Whatever powers Satoru had as Kestrel, he couldn't fly, or jump from the top of a tower block, apparently. When Luna came around the corner, he saw the faint blue glow of the visor just dropping down from the lowest level of a fire escape.

He almost used Satoru's real name, but he forced himself instead to shout, "Kestrel!"

Kestrel looked briefly over his shoulder, then began to run in the opposite direction. Some of Luna's hesitation and worry transformed into plain annoyance at that point. If he'd just _stand still_ maybe they could have a reasonable conversation about this...

He ran after him. They both burst out of the alley and Sol was right there, just leaning down to pick something up from the ground...

"Sol!" Luna yelled.

She spun towards them. The next few seconds seemed to happen in slow motion. Sol reacted instinctively, throwing her hands out and casting fire in a wave towards Kestrel. Kestrel tried to dive out of the way, but he was already close enough that he wouldn't make it. And Luna... didn't have time to think. The shield was around both him and Kestrel before he even heard himself say the words to summon it. Sol's fire splashed off harmlessly, even as she desperately tried to rein it back in of her own accord. Kestrel hit the ground hard, but unburned, and Luna realised if he kept the shield up, Kestrel wouldn't be able to run away...

But whatever Kestrel had done to Luna's shield before, he did again the second Sol's fire died away. The dome vanished, Kestrel rolled to his feet... and this time he fled without even trying to reach the shard. Luna took a step after him, but the sound of a choking gasp from Sol made him spin back towards her.

She had a handover her face and her shoulders were heaving with sobs. Luna stared in disbelief for a moment before he rushed to her side.

"Sol? Are you okay? Are you--"

"I didn't realise you were right there!" Sol wailed. "I could have hit you! I could have hit _him_! I could have _killed_ him!"

Luna found he was shaking. He didn't know what to say. She was right. It seemed easiest just to hug her, so he did.

"I don't want to kill anyone," Sol said, muffled against his shoulder. "Even Kestrel or Neikos, I... I _can't_..."

"We'll... we'll figure something out," Luna said. He didn't have any idea _what_ they could do, but it was categorically not okay for Sol to be this upset. "And it's okay! I got the shield up! No-one was hurt. We got the shard... wait, did we get the shard?"

Sol gulped, and pulled back enough to open up her hand. The shard glittered in her palm. She managed a smile through her tears.

"We got the shard. And that boy--"

"He's fine," Luna said. "His soul didn't go anywhere! He woke up, and his girlfriend's fine too, they should be long gone by now..."

"Oh wow, what are they going to _think_?" Sol said, laughing shakily. "Did you tell them it was all a dream or something?"

"I... no, I didn't think of that..." Luna frowned. "But what can they do? No-one will believe them if they talk about it."

"That's kind of awful though, don't you think?" Sol carefully opened her crest and tucked the shard inside. "I mean, they're not going to get to meet Sakaki and have it all explained... I thought I was going crazy when the Spectres first attacked me..."

"I... didn't think of that, either," Luna said. "Maybe we can find them and tell them a bit about it? I know I'll recognise the shard-bearer again, but I don't think the girl was from the same school."

"I don't know, maybe finding out more would be _worse_ , though," Sol said. "If you can't do anything about it..."

"That's true too." Luna sighed. "We should probably just leave them alone and let them come up with their own explanation. In movies and things, normal people always just blame a gas leak or something, right?"

"Right." Sol rubbed the back of her glove over her eyes. "I'm sorry. I think I'm okay now."

"You don't have to be sorry. This is... hard." Luna took a deep breath. "And, I know I said we might have to kill the Archdukes, but... I don't want to either. There has to be another way."

"Yeah." Sol managed to grin with something close to her usual cheer. "We're the Celestial Guard. We'll _make_ another way."

"With ice-cream?"

And that made her laugh, and made the fragile look that had been in her eyes go away, which was why Luna had said it in the first place, and why he fully intended to do _something_ about Kestrel before the next time they went after a shard.

* * *

"I don't think Neikos was there," Akemi said, leaning back against Sakaki's trunk. It was nice have a day where it wasn't raining. The tent was a wonderful idea, but it was still quite small and cramped. "Just Spectres. It was like the first time they attacked me... one of the ones that look like men had the knife in a briefcase."

"That really worries me," Shoichi said. "What was he doing instead?"

"Perhaps setting up more haunts," Sakaki replied. "I sense even more just in the course of today..."

"We've cleared out five this week already!" Akemi complained. "Are these ones all schools too?"

"I do not know, but it seems to be the pattern."

"Two middle schools, two high schools, and a university lecture hall," Shoichi said, ticking them off on his fingers. "I guess... if they're supposed to be a distraction, putting kids in danger is a good way to make sure we take it seriously? Except that doesn't explain the university."

"Maybe that wasn't part of the pattern." Akemi closed her eyes. She felt like she could sleep, all of a sudden. Possibly for a week. She wished she hadn't burst into tears in front of Shoichi, but she felt better now, all the same. "He might have just thrown that one in."

"Or he's a student there," Shoichi said slowly. "I mean... he has to have a real life of some kind."

"What makes you think he's a student and not a professor?"

"You've met him, haven't you?" said Shoichi, echoing Akemi's earlier comment, and in a good imitation of her accent.

She laughed, and then paused, struck by a thought.

"Why do you talk like you're from Tokyo, anyway? I thought you'd lived here all your life."

Shoichi coloured, looking uncomfortable. "Oh... it's my school. We have to speak Tokyo dialect all the time. We're not allowed to use any Osaka slang... we used to be punished for it in elementary."

"Wow." Akemi had to bite back a less diplomatic response about stuck-up private schools. "Why didn't they just build the school in Tokyo, then?"

Shoichi shrugged. Akemi didn't need him to tell her he hated the elitism of it. It was written all over his face. She decided not to pursue the topic further.

"So we've got a shard," she said. "Finally. Can we use it at all, Sakaki? To fight the Multitude?"

"No," Sakaki said, with more force than Akemi was expecting. She tilted her head back to look questioningly at the branches overhanging her. "We must simply keep the shards safe and away from the Archdukes. There is no way for us to use their power."

"But you said the Archdukes can use them?"

"Only if they collect enough of them, and even then, only with the twisted power of the Multitude. It is not--"

Sakaki stopped suddenly.

"What is it?"

"There is someone approaching," Sakaki said. She sounded puzzled. "There has been someone in the shrine since just after you arrived, but the maze I have woven around this place was keeping them out... but now they have begun to find a path to us."

Shoichi scrambled to his feet, suddenly pale. "One of the Archdukes? Or... or Kestrel?"

"No, I would sense their power. This seems like just a normal person, except..." Sakaki fell silent again, then said slowly, "I think perhaps I should let them in."

"What?" Akemi got to her feet as well. She shared a glance with Shoichi. "Should we transform?"

"No," said Sakaki with more certainty. "I think... fate has collaborated in our favour for once."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

But Sakaki said nothing more. Akemi heard movement in the bushes, the sound of someone cautiously making their way through the forest. She tensed despite Sakaki's warning. Shoichi looked like he was about to pass out from nerves.

Finally, they could see who it was, and Akemi's mouth fell open.

"What are you doing here?"

The girl they'd saved earlier stopped, clutching her school bag nervously. She couldn't be more than fourteen or so, and it looked like it had taken a lot of her courage to come up to them. Akemi looked behind her for the shard-bearer, but she seemed to be alone.

"Um," she said. "I followed you."

"Wait, what? How? You were nowhere around when we left!"

"I saw you at the station. When I was about to go home." The girl bit her lip. "I just... wanted to know what's going on, that's all."

"But we weren't transformed when we were at the station--" Akemi began, then stared at the girl as the realisation hit. "Wait, you recognise us? Like this?"

The girl blinked. "Like what? You changed your clothes..."

And Sakaki laughed. The girl jumped and looked around for the source. Shoichi's eyes had gone wide, but whatever it was he'd figured out, it was just out of Akemi's grasp.

Then Sakaki said, "Come here, Astra. It seems you have found us before we could find you."


	9. Gathering Clouds

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some new stuff on the website - a soundtrack page with "openings" and "endings" for the episodes, and various character portraits (Hikari coming soon!).

Hikari stood on the steps that led up to the shrine, one hand holding the medallion, the other gripping the strap of her bag tightly. She almost couldn't make herself walk forward. Yesterday was one big chaotic jumble in her head, shadows and shards and a talking tree, and even though at the time she had believed it all without question, now... now she was afraid of what she would find if she went back to the clearing. What if none of it was real? What if it was just two high school students playing a prank on her for some reason? Or worse, what if she'd dreamed it or hallucinated it or...

"Hi, Hikari!"

Akemi was coming up the steps behind her. She quickly reached Hikari and paused.

"Everything okay?"

"Is it real?" Hikari blurted out.

Akemi blinked, then laughed. That made Hikari feel better immediately. It wasn't the laughter of someone trying to make her look stupid; it was the way you laughed when you knew exactly how the other person felt.

"Yes," said Akemi. "It's real. Even the weird bits."

She reached out and looped her arm through Hikari's. They continued up the steps together.

"Is your friend okay?" Akemi asked.

"I think so. He didn't really see the... Spectres, I think. We had to go to the police and say he'd been mugged." Hikari bit her lip. "They asked us all sorts of questions about what the people looked like and I couldn't really answer. I really hope they don't tell my parents. They'll never let me go out after dark again."

"Do they keep close tabs on you?"

"Not _that_ much," Hikari said hurriedly. "They just worry about... things like that. People attacking me or hurting me. Especially after, you know, that stuff in Kyoto..."

"That's understandable." They'd reached the shrine gate and were heading into the woods behind the main building. "If my mom knew about the times I've sneaked out of my room, she'd flip out."

"You have to do that? For the Guardian stuff?"

Akemi glanced at her and hesitated.

"Yeah," she said. "Not... not that often. We haven't had any shard bearers attacked in the middle of the night yet."

"Yet?"

"Well, I don't like to count on it never happening."

As they approached the clearing, Hikari could see something through the trees that hadn't been there before - a white patch like someone had laid a sheet out on the ground. Shoichi was just visible, standing over the white thing and apparently reading a piece of paper intently.

"He didn't," Akemi said, laughing. "Did he? He totally did." She raised her voice. "Shoichi! Is that _another_ tent?"

Shoichi turned in their direction and gave Akemi a sheepish grin.

"The other one wasn't going to be big enough for three of us," he replied. "And I had some money my parents gave me that I never got around to spending." He frowned down at the pile of material at his feet. "But this one is kind of complicated to set up. I might need some help."

"Right." Akemi gave Hikari's arm a squeeze before letting go. "First Celestial Guardian duty for you: help put up this tent."

* * *

"I call upon the stars, my liege," Astra said with quiet precision, "solitary guides of twilight. Grant me the power to strike at the dark!"

Several blinding bolts of white light shredded the bush she had aimed at. Astra made a muffled squeaking noise, started to put her hands up to her face, then stopped, wide-eyed, looking at her gloved fingers as if they might go off. There was a flash of light as her transformation reversed, leaving her standing in her school uniform and looking very young again.

Shoichi would have jumped up to reassure her, except Akemi was already on her feet and exclaiming, "Wait, she gets _lasers_? Why does she get lasers? I want lasers!"

At the same time, she had quickly crossed the clearing to the newest member of the Guard and grabbed her hands without fear, which from the look on Hikari's face was the best thing she could have done.

"You hardly need more firepower," Sakaki said. "Astra's abilities are more focused than yours, and with the right training, she will be able to strike with precision from greater distances."

"So she's our sniper?" Akemi said.

"You'll have to explain that one to me."

Akemi immediately and cheerfully did, with occasional helpful commentary from Hikari, who already seemed to be over her momentary fright at what she'd done. That was good. Shoichi had been worried when he'd realised she was only in junior high. Not, he added hastily to himself, that there was any reason her age should affect her skill as a Guardian, just... it was weird how much younger fourteen looked to him now he was almost four years older.

He sat back on his cushion and let the explanation of the finer points of long-distance ballistics wash over him. The new tent was even better than he'd hoped. It was big and square, with plastic windows on two sides, a door that could roll right up out of the way or be kept in place with zippers, and a proper groundsheet that would keep out the rising damp. Most importantly, it was at least twice as big as Shoichi had imagined, so they weren't going to run out of space for more Guardians any time soon. It was easily the size of a small room, and the roof was tall enough that he was at no risk of having to stoop.

And it was a way of distracting himself, of course. He knew that really. It was easier, and more comforting, to fuss about getting just the right tent, and enjoy Akemi's reaction to it, than to focus on what he really needed to do next.

With a sigh, he pulled his phone out of his pocket and checked it again. Against all odds he'd hoped Satoru might finally respond to his emails, after the close call with Sol yesterday... but there was still nothing.

So he was going to have to take a different approach, and even though he already knew what it would be, he hadn't quite managed to nerve himself up to cross that line yet.

"Have you had any training in that area?" Sakaki was asking. "I realise in this time it is far less likely..."

"Um... well, I've played a lot of video games," Hikari said hesitantly. "But I don't think they're really the same thing."

"What are-- no, Sol, don't explain it now," Sakaki said. "Do these games train your hand and eye?"

"Not really. They're more about pressing buttons." Hikari seemed to remember something. "Oh - but I used to go to the archery club at my old school. Does that count?"

Sakaki laughed. There was something about that laugh... something that Shoichi was beginning to recognise, though he couldn't quite put words around what it meant. Sakaki laughed like that sometimes when some minor detail of their lives came up in conversation, as if to say, _of course_. It was odd. Not _bad,_ just... odd. Like she was laughing at a private joke they didn't understand.

"It does count," Sakaki said. "Would you be able to resume instruction?"

"I... guess so." Hikari bit her lip. "Except there isn't an archery club at my school now."

"There's one at mine," Shoichi said. "And they take members from other schools - since it's not such a common hobby."

He'd been concerned for a moment that they were railroading Hikari into it, but her face lit up as he spoke.

"Really?" she said. "I'd like that. If you think they'd let me in."

"How's your Tokyo accent?" Akemi asked with a sneaky smirk in Shoichi's direction.

"Um-- I'm not sure--"

"She's making fun of me," Shoichi said, shooting a mock-glare back at Akemi. "You'll be fine. They're always looking for new members."

"I'll ask my parents," Hikari said. Then she smiled self-consciously. "But I know they'll say yes. They think I spend too much time on the computer. They'll be thrilled."

"That's settled, then," Akemi said. She looked thoughtful. "I wonder... should we do something like that, Shoichi?"

"Like what? Archery?"

"Well, not archery, but... some sort of, I don't know, martial art or something?"

"I'm... not sure I'm a martial arts sort of person," Shoichi said cautiously. "I tried judo once, but I didn't like it."

"It is a good thought," Sakaki put in. "If you are able. Learning to defend yourself without your powers will increase your skill at using them." She hesitated. "Tell me, do they still teach swordsmanship these days, or have your rifles and pistols replaced such things?"

"There's fencing," Shoichi said. "My school has a club for that."

"Mine has kendo," Akemi said. "I used to go, before I got into exam hell."

"Exam hell?"

"The last couple of years of high school are all about passing the university entrance exams," Shoichi said, forestalling an explanation from Akemi that he knew would be five times as long. "People call it 'exam hell', because you just don't do anything else except prepare for them."

"How dull," Sakaki said.

Akemi and Shoichi stared at each other for a moment before breaking into laughter.

"Yeah," said Akemi, getting a handle on herself, "that's one way of describing it."

* * *

Akemi raised her hand hesitantly. The teacher had made it pretty clear that they weren't supposed to be asking questions during the test, but... this was kind of urgent.

The teacher glared at her and then looked pointedly away. Akemi winced. She looked down at the floor again, wondering if maybe she should just keep quiet, but in the end common sense won out.

"Shouldn't we do something about the water?" she said out loud.

"No _talking_ ," the teacher hissed, glaring at her again, this time with such poison it froze Akemi's voice in her throat. "You're going to fail."

Akemi swallowed hard. The water spilling under the classroom door seemed run faster, and the spreading puddle reached her desk. She hitched her feet up under her chair to keep them dry.

"I just think we should stop the water--"

"You will fail."

The classroom door burst open and water surged through with a roar and crash that was horribly familiar. Akemi screamed. Everyone else in the class was still bent over their tests even as the wave engulfed them. She flung herself out of her chair and grabbed her medallion, transforming in a heartbeat, and flung a wall of fire out from where she was standing as if she could boil the water away before it reached her...

It almost seemed to be working, until the teacher was suddenly behind her, grabbing her by the hair and yanking her down under the waist-high flood.

"You will fail."

Then salt filled her mouth and she struggled desperately...

... and her alarm woke her, still gasping for air.

* * *

When she felt the shiver of recognition between classes, Akemi thought at first that it was a holdover from the dream, and tried to ignore it. But the creeping wrongness only increased, and when she sensed Sakaki trying to contact her through the medallion, she almost ran to the bathroom.

"There is a new haunt--" Sakaki began.

"It's in my school, isn't it?"

"It does appear to be in close proximity to you."

"Fine. I'll deal with it."

"Sol?" Sakaki sounded concerned. "There is no need to rush in. It has barely gained a foothold. Luna and Astra can join you later--"

"If it's tiny, that's all the more reason to just deal with it now. I am _not_ spending the rest of the day feeling like someone walked over my grave."

"Remember what Luna said about splitting up. Perhaps I should contact him as well--"

"He's probably in the middle of a test or something." Akemi felt jittery and angry, and like somehow the Spectres, wherever they were, were taking advantage of how rattled the dream had left her. "I'll text him so he knows. It's easier to check his phone than get out of class and use the medallion. But if it's only a few of them, I just want to put a _stop_ to this right _now._ "

"Still, I would advise caution..."

"You _know_ that's not my thing."

She thought she heard Sakaki sigh as she closed the medallion. Feeling slightly guilty, she pulled out her phone and shot Shoichi a quick message about the haunt. Somewhat to her surprise, he responded immediately: _Do you need me to come there?_

 _In the middle of the day?_ Akemi typed. _No, I've got this. Sakaki says it's small._

_Just... be careful. There's no harm in waiting until later and going in together._

Akemi made a face, flipped her phone closed without replying, and reached for her medallion. The school halls were deserted right now with everyone in class. She had a good idea of the most likely places to find the Spectres - the windowless sports hall or the basement club rooms were most likely. If she hurried, she could get back into class with an excuse about feeling ill, and her day would be almost normal.

Apart from the memory of the surging water, of course. It was funny... she'd always been terrified of the threat of a tsunami, ever since she was old enough to learn about what you did in an earthquake, and what might come afterwards. Even though she'd never lived close enough to the sea to be at risk, even though her school was on a hill, even though Osaka itself was well-sheltered and protected from all but the most catastrophic waves... it had been her greatest fear since childhood. But she'd never dreamed about it before, not even once, and now... now, she was sure there had been rising water in other dreams lately, a silent threat seeping under the doors of even the most private places in her mind.

Sakaki had said that the Spectres could use your fears against you, hadn't she? All the more reason to deal with them decisively and put the nightmare out of her mind.

* * *

Shoichi wasn't really surprised that he got no response to his admonition to be careful, but he worried about Akemi anyway. He almost reached for his medallion, but hesitated. He wasn't quite sure how much information Sakaki could glean from the contact, and he didn't want to have to try and explain why he wasn't in school right now.

He glanced over at the main entrance to the University lecture hall. He knew some of the classes Satoru was taking. It hadn't been too difficult from there to find the timetables online and work out which building Satoru would be in for the morning lectures. It felt creepy, though. Like that date-ambush thing, only worse, because Shoichi _knew_ Satoru wouldn't be pleased to see him.

People started coming out of the doors to the building in ones and twos. Shoichi stood up straighter as he scanned each person who passed him. His heart was racing and he felt vaguely sick. Everything about this felt invasive and wrong, but what other option did he have?

Satoru emerged before Shoichi could talk himself into giving up on the whole thing. He looked tired, was Shoichi's first thought. His next was that he recognised Satoru's coat: it was the long, hooded one he wore as Kestrel. Before he could wonder about that, Satoru looked up and saw him.

And tried to turn around and walk the other way.

At which point Shoichi was annoyed all over again despite the guilt. He jumped forward and grabbed Satoru's arm, managing to get a good grip on his wrist, and said, with far more exasperation than he had intended, "Could you please stop running away and just _talk_ to me for five minutes?"

Satoru blinked, seeming momentarily nonplussed. "What?"

"Talk. With words. About..." Shoichi glanced at the other people around them, "... some of the things we have in common."

Satoru hesitated. Shoichi was suddenly, intently aware of his hand tight on Satoru's wrist, almost intimate, but almost a threat at the same time. He let go. If Satoru was going to vanish into a puff of smoke, he probably couldn't do much about it anyway.

"All right," Satoru said quietly. "Let's go to the park over there."

They found an unoccupied bench away from other people. Shoichi took a gamble on sitting down first, knowing that if Satoru ran off again, he'd never be able to regain the headstart. But after a moment, Satoru sat down too. And then they were sitting there. On the bench. Not looking at each other. While Shoichi tried to figure out where to start.

Awkward didn't even begin to cover it.

"I'm sorry for coming here like this," Shoichi blurted out, seizing on the first thing that had been preoccupying him. "I just didn't know what else to do."

Satoru nodded, still without looking directly at Shoichi, but maybe the apology had been worth something, because he seemed to relax a bit. Shoichi closed his eyes for a moment and reached for the words he'd been rehearsing for days.

"Sol could have killed you the other day. She doesn't want to hurt you, or anyone else, but... you're doing the same thing as the Multitude."

"No, I'm not--" Satoru began sharply, then stopped himself. He sighed. "I can't... I really can't talk about this. With anyone. That's part of the... the duty."

"Duty?"

"And _especially_ not with you," Satoru rushed on. All at once a floodgate seemed to have opened as some energy came into his voice. "You know, when this... when this started, when I was--- when I had to start looking for the shards... I got given an _actual piece of paper_ that _literally said_ 'do not trust the Celestial Guard, they are not on your side', okay? And you've tried to stop me getting the shards, your friend Sol is _very quick_ to incinerate anything that gets in her way--"

"Most of what gets in her way is Spectres," Shoichi protested. "What else are we supposed to do with them? We tried hugging, it didn't work."

Satoru looked directly at him for the first time, startled, and almost - _almost_ \- with the hint of a smile. "Did you?"

"No, of course not," Shoichi said. He took the chance and plunged forward. "We didn't think you were on their side until you took the shard before we could save the shard-bearer--"

"I am _not_ on their side," Satoru said with such fury and sincerity that Shoichi believed him instantly and with a huge wave of relief. "And I didn't know. I didn't know... there _was_ any way to save the shard-bearers. I _tried_ the first few times..."

He hunched in on himself.

"It didn't matter what I did, the Spectres always came back for them," he said. "All that happened was that I gave up the element of surprise and one of the Archdukes got the shard. And that person... died... for nothing."

"They're not dead--"

"They might as well be. They never wake up--"

"We woke the old woman," Shoichi said. "She's fine. If we can get the shards of the others who are in comas, we can bring them back too."

Satoru looked at him for the second time, expression at once stricken and touched with the beginning of hope. "Are you sure?"

"I'm sure." It was all Shoichi could do to stop himself reaching out for Satoru's hand. He looked so alone right now. "That's what we were doing at the hospital that time, before Neikos ambushed us. We brought her back. It's the same power I use on the shards when they're being extracted, Sakaki calls it a soul anchor--"

"Sakaki?"

Shoichi stopped talking abruptly. As much as he wanted to talk to Satoru, he had an obligation to Sakaki and Sol as well, he couldn't just give all their secrets away...

But Satoru seemed to have some idea of who he meant anyway, and judging by the way his expression darkened, it wasn't entirely favourable.

"The guide," he said. "Of course. That was in the letter too."

He sighed and raked his hands through his hair in a moment of open frustration.

"I can't... I really can't talk about this," he said finally. "There... was no room for misinterpretation, even taking the translation into account. The letter told me to stay away from you."

"It wasn't signed 'Archduke Neikos', was it?" Shoichi asked, trying for light-hearted, but feeling his own frustration behind the words. "What do you mean, translation?"

Satoru shook his head. He glanced at Shoichi, and something about the look... the longing and sadness in it... suddenly made it hard for Shoichi to breathe.

"I'm sorry," Satoru said. "I can't. And I can't stop going after the shards. It's... vital that I'm the one who gets them, not the Multitude, and not the Guard. And--" he half-laughed bitterly, "--I can't explain _why_ , so I realise that sounds about as convincing as a used-car salesman..."

"I believe you," Shoichi said. "But I have to do what I'm supposed to do as well. We can't let the Multitude get the shards. We can keep them safe if we have them..."

Satoru nodded, and got to his feet. Shoichi wanted to reach out and stop him, but he understood that the conversation had reached a dead end. If Satoru couldn't confide in him, he didn't dare confide in Satoru, no matter how much he wanted to.

"I can't stop going after the shards," Satoru said, shoving his hands deep into the pockets of his coat and staring at the ground between them. "I won't hold back, either - I have to get them. But I... I don't have any reason to hurt you. Or Sol. Or anyone else. I won't if there is any other way. And I won't... I won't ever try to take a shard before you've anchored the bearer's soul. Not ever again. Not now I know you can save them."

"What about the other shards, from before Sol and I awakened?"

"I don't know. I have... some. Neikos has some. There are at least three other Archdukes active and I haven't been able to intercept all the shard-bearers." Satoru glanced up at Shoichi pleadingly. "I can't... I can't make a decision yet about that, I need to go and... think, and read up."

Shoichi took a deep breath, all too aware of the fragility of their tentative understanding, and reached for the part of himself that was always calm in a crisis, always self-sufficient.

"Okay," he said. "I guess I have to accept that. You know how to contact me. And as long as you don't do anything to help the Multitude, I won't tell Sol or Sakaki who you really are. But," he went on with a sudden fierceness he hadn't expected, "I won't hold back either. If I can get the shard before you, I'm not going to step aside and let you take it."

Satoru met his eyes for a long moment, then nodded. "Okay."

Shoichi reluctantly stood up. "I'd better go. I'm supposed to be home sick. Just my luck if my father's case wraps up early for once..."

Satoru looked surprised, and oddly concerned. "Wait, that's right, you should be in school."

Shoichi shrugged. "This was more important."

"Don't think like that." Satoru suddenly stepped closer, so that when Shoichi looked up, startled, they were barely an arm length apart, and he could see the lines of tiredness and worry under Satoru's eyes. "Don't treat your normal life like it isn't worth anything. Please."

"I'll... I'll try." Shoichi tried for a light-hearted end to the conversation. "It would help if Neikos would stop throwing Spectres at our schools..."

"He got one of yours?" Satoru asked sharply. "Did you respond?"

"Er--- not yet," Shoichi said. "It's only a small one--" 

"That's not the point. Just make sure you don't give yourselves away. I'm pretty sure it's a search grid."

Shoichi went cold. "What?"

"I've been looking at the pattern of haunts in the last few weeks," Satoru said quietly but urgently. "It's all schools, universities - he knows roughly what age you must be. I think he's tracking how long it takes you to deal with the haunts and trying to figure out where you are in the city. If he could narrow it down even to one or two schools it would put you at risk--"

"Oh my god." Shoichi stumbled back a step, then fumbled his phone out of his pocket and dialled Akemi's number. "I should have realised--"

Akemi didn't pick up. After a couple of attempts, his phone flashed to let him know he had a new text message from her. It just read: _emergency??_

Shoichi took a breath. That meant she was in class. If she was fighting, she wouldn't answer at all.

 _Whatever you do, don't go after the Spectres,_ he typed frantically. _I'll explain later, but it's really important that you don't deal with them during school hours._

There was a long, long pause before the message light went off again.

 _Too late,_ the glowing characters said simply. _I already did._

* * *

"I messed up," Akemi said, staring up at the roof of the tent. The ground felt hard and cold even through the ground sheet. The cushion under her head smelled faintly of leaves and grass. "I'm so stupid."

"You didn't know," Shoichi said. "None of us did."

"You figured it out."

"I..." Shoichi seemed to find it hard to respond for a moment. "Not quickly enough."

"It is too late for recriminations," Sakaki said, which Akemi had an uncharitable suspicion was code for 'I told you so'. "If Luna is right about the purpose of the haunts, we must attempt to establish what information Neikos has gained by this."

"He knows where my school is," Akemi said miserably.

"That doesn't tell him who you are," Shoichi pointed out. "It's a big school. There are hundreds of other people there."

"And he will not to be able to establish a haunt there, for you will always sense the Spectres before they can gain traction," Sakaki added. "You must be very careful that you are not followed when you come here or go to other haunts, and only transform when you are sure to be unobserved."

"There was a haunt in my school," Hikari said suddenly. "I... I just realised."

Akemi sat up to look at her. "What? When?"

"Um... about a week ago." Hikari nervously fiddled with the hem of her skirt. "I didn't know what it was then... but the sports hall was full of shadows, and no-one else could see them..."

"Sounds right," Akemi said.

"Wait," Hikari said, blinking, "does that mean you guys came to my school? It was gone the next day."

"That was Tenth District Junior High, right?" said Shoichi. "I think that was the first one we saw in a school. Akemi almost burned down your gym."

"I did _not..._ " The tiny joke was enough to shake her out of her dismay, at least a little. "He exaggerates."

"I did wonder why it smelled of smoke," Hikari said with a sweet little innocent smile. "I'm glad it wasn't my imagination."

"That won't have tipped Neikos off, though," Shoichi continued. "We dealt with it later in the evening. You weren't even awakened yet. So you're okay. Hopefully he won't think to go back to the ones he's already tried."

"We should make a list.." Akemi reached for her bag and pulled out a notebook. "Did it make much difference how far away they were?"

"Not much, but a little," said Shoichi. "We did the ones closer to us a bit sooner than the others - we had to work out how to get there and what to say to our parents, remember?"

"Right, right..." Akemi started jotting down the names of the schools and universities she could remember. "There hasn't been one at your school yet, at least. Hikari's okay." She bit her lip, filled with shame again. "It's just me who went charging in like an idiot..."

"Sol," Sakaki said gently, "do not be so hard on yourself. It was an understandable reaction to such an invasion of your school. And it is a clever tactic, one I had not even considered and that I do not believe has ever been used before. You are not to blame, and knowing that you are one face in a crowd of hundreds is not such a great advantage for Neikos."

Akemi regretted her previous thoughts about 'I told you so'. "I just feel so stupid. I did exactly what he wanted me to."

"None of us saw it," Sakaki said. "Except Luna, and we must be glad that he realised Neikos's plan, so we can work against it."

"Um, yeah." 

For some reason Shoichi seemed uncomfortable whenever anyone praised him for working out what was going on with the haunts. Maybe he was worried it would make Akemi feel worse. That would be like him.

"There are still some haunts left to deal with," he was saying. "Maybe we can... trick him? If we can get to one of the others during the day..."

"I don't think I can cut school," Akemi said. "My mom would kill me. And she's usually home in the day so I can't pretend to be sick and then go out..."

Shoichi flushed. "No, that... wouldn't work. Maybe I can do it."

"But you can't really deal with the Spectres without me."

"Right."

"I might be able to," Hikari said. "Get out of school, I mean."

Akemi shot her a worried look. "I don't want you to get in trouble. If you tell your parents you're sick and you're not..."

"That's not how I'd do it." Hikari was often rather quiet, but she seemed confident now. "I sometimes have, um, doctor's appointments. Not for anything serious, just... something they have to check sometimes. My school is used to me going to them for a few hours in the afternoons. I can forge the note easily. They won't check with my parents."

"What if you need a real one right after?" Shoichi asked, also looking concerned.

"Actually I'm not due for another for six months now," Hikari said. "But my school doesn't know that."

"Er... you don't, like, have a weak heart or anything, do you?" Akemi said before she could stop herself. "I mean, just--"

"No, it's nothing like that!" Hikari went very red, and looked so uncomfortable and worried that Akemi kicked herself for pushing. "It's nothing big or dangerous or anything. It's just a tiny little thing where they do a couple of blood tests and send me back to school."

"I guess that's our plan then," Shoichi said, obviously seeing Hikari's discomfort as clearly as Akemi, and hurrying to drop the subject. "Hikari and I will pick one of these and go during the day. That way at least Neikos has more than one target to think about."

"These small haunts will be a good opportunity for Astra to hone her skills," Sakaki agreed.

"You can have a day off," Hikari said to Akemi with a smile.

"I... I'm not gonna argue with that," Akemi said. She had to swallow to stop herself from crying. They were all being so _nice_. It made her feel better and worse at the same time. "But you'll call me if there are any problems, right?"

"Of course," Shoichi said. "And afterwards, we can get ice-cream." He flashed her a smile. "Or even do karaoke if you want."

Akemi laughed. "Okay," she said. "I'm in."

* * *

This time, somehow, Akemi knew it was a dream. It didn't help. It didn't help as she ran through the endless halls she didn't recognise and yet knew by heart, as the water rushing along with her rose from a trickle to a stream to a roaring flood.

She was trying to call out to people, but the names slipped away from her tongue like the debris caught in the current. Instead she found herself substituting names from her waking life: _Shoichi! Sakaki! Hikari! Hana! Mom!_

No-one answered, except for the slithering shadows that had come in with the water.

_Shadows fear the blazing sun._

"But I'm tired," Akemi whispered. "I'm cold, and I'm wet, and I'm tired... there's nothing left to burn."

The water tugged at her knees. She stumbled, and all at once, she couldn't find the strength to save herself. She fell into the water, and it was almost a relief, even as it stung her nose and eyes with salt.

A hand grabbed hers and pulled - seemed to pull her _down_ deeper, but then she broke through the surface of water that was no longer churning, no longer brine. She was drawn up from a still clear pool that reflected the stars, and when she stepped out, the surface fell calm so swiftly that it looked like glass.

The man who had taken her hand still held it, and some part of her recognised him instantly, even though she couldn't see his face and didn't know his name.

"I failed," she said.

"So did I," he replied.

"It won't happen again," she promised.

"No," he said, letting go of her hand and looking past her at the pool of water, "it won't."


	10. Distant Thunder

A week ago Hikari would never have imagined she'd be sneaking into someone else's school in the middle of a day when she was supposed to be in her own classes. If she thought about it too hard it made her feel slightly lightheaded, and if she thought about what would happen if anyone found out... well, it was better not to think about that, really.

But she was determined not to let the others down. They needed her help and she was going to do whatever it took to make sure they got it. Even breaking rules she had never dreamed of breaking.

She was so glad she wasn't doing it by herself, though.

"This is it," said Shoichi, looking at his watch. "They'll all be in class now."

"What if someone sees us?"

"That's why we transform first. It should make us less obvious."

Hikari stared at him. " _Less_ obvious? With the... the costume and the gloves and the boots and stuff?"

Shoichi shot her a smile. "I know. It's weird but it seems to work. It's the disguise magic Sakaki talked about."

Hikari swallowed her nerves as best she could. "Okay."

It still took all her courage to walk right up the main doors after they'd transformed into Luna and Astra. At any second she expected someone to yell at them from a window. Shoichi - Luna - didn't seem worried at all, but then, Astra could already tell that he was good at giving that impression, especially when he didn't want anyone else to be worried. Even so, it was reassuring, and as they made their way through the school halls, she slowly started to relax.

That turned out to be mistake, as she almost jumped out of her skin when a teacher stepped out of a room up ahead, looked at them, frowned, and said, "Where are you going?"

Astra froze, feeling herself turning red. She was sure he would follow up by asking who they were, why they were in the school, what were those costumes they were wearing... but he just waited for an answer, mild disapproval on his face.

"My sister isn't feeling well," Luna said. "Our mom can't come to pick her up, so I'm signing her out to take her home."

"Oh, I see." The frown lifted. The teacher moved past them down the corridor. "I hope you feel better soon."

Luna took Astra's hand and tugged her gently on down the corridor. Astra had some trouble putting her feet in front of each other until they were safely down a staircase and away from the classrooms.

"He thought we were students here?"

"I guess so." Luna let go of her hand and peered around the next corner. "I'm not sure exactly how it works, but I think people just don't quite... notice us. We're not invisible, obviously, but they sort of assume we look like we ought to be here, even if they want to know why we're _here._ If that makes sense."

"Not... really."

Luna shrugged. "Not to me either, to be honest. It feels really weird every time."

He led the way down the basement corridor towards what Astra assumed was the boiler room. The hairs on the back of her neck began to stand on end, as if there was a thunderstorm on the way. She shivered and hurried to stay close to Luna.

Luna glanced at her and smiled reassuringly. "It's the Spectres," he said. "They give you that creepy feeling."

"Do you get used to it?"

"Kind of. I mean, it's still creepy but at least we can do something about it."

He cautiously pushed open the door to the boiler room. It was dark inside, much darker than it should be with the light from the corridor spilling into it. Just like the sports hall, Astra thought. She raised her hands hesitantly.

"Wait." Luna leaned around the door frame and pressed a light switch. It didn't make much difference. "I get the impression your power is more... focused than Sol's. I think you need to find a target."

"How? There's nothing but black in there."

"Stick close to me."

"Okay..."

Together they ran a few steps into the darkness. Luna whispered words she couldn't quite catch, his call to the moon, she guessed, and the brilliant shield sprang up around them. The light from it pushed back some of the shadows, and Astra saw something move out of the corner of her eye...

She didn't really think, in the end. It just came as naturally as catching her balance after a misstep or tying her hair back without looking. She turned and moved her hand, _I call upon the stars, my liege_ , and a flare of white light hit the centre of the movement. For a second, the Spectre was pinned, a bright hole in its darkness where the bolt had struck, and then it crumbled to dust and faded.

"... that was cool," Luna said.

"That was pretty cool," Astra agreed. Her fingers only trembled a little as she lowered them. "Let's get the others."

* * *

It was weird knowing Luna and Astra were fighting Spectres while Akemi was sitting in her chemistry class. She couldn't have honestly said she was paying much attention. She surreptitiously checked her phone so many times she was in danger of getting caught by the teacher.

Since they'd realised what Neikos was doing, she'd felt exposed whenever she went to school. She'd learned to trust the disguise magic of the medallion, but now she felt as though she stuck out like a sore thumb. She'd even tied her hair differently the last couple of days, pulling it right back into a braid (from which it would inevitably escape by lunch time) out of some vague idea that not being "the red-haired girl with pigtails" would help, but it hadn't made her feel any better. If anything, it made her feel more conspicuous, like she was trying too hard and Neikos would immediately realise why she had made the change.

 _I'm giving him too much credit,_ she told herself, half-heartedly trying to make a few notes on whatever the teacher was currently talking about. _He's not that smart and he can't see through the disguise. Girls change their hair all the time. Keiko just got hers cut super short! Maybe I should hang around with her for a bit so if he follows me he gets us mixed up..._

Except that would be terrible, of course. Imagine if Neikos ambushed Keiko, thinking she was Guardian Sol... Akemi shuddered. She'd do better to avoid the rest of her classmates, and everyone else at the school, so there was no chance of them being associated with her. 

Not that she'd have to try very hard to achieve that. She glanced around the classroom for a second, watching as everyone else wrote diligently in their notebooks. She felt like a glass wall had come down around her, like they weren't even on the same planet any more.

Suddenly she couldn't stand to be in class another second. Even though it wasn't long until the end of the period, she raised her hand and asked for permission to go to the bathroom. For a moment, from the teacher's frown, she thought he was going to say no, but then he seemed to decide that it wasn't a battle he wanted to fight, and he let her go.

The bathroom wasn't exactly the most calming of environments, but Akemi still felt better when she got there and found there was no-one else around. She paused to look at herself in the mirror. Did she look different these days? She couldn't tell. Her face looked just the same as it always did to her, even with all the late nights and worry. Her hair was busy escaping from the braid again. With a flash of defiance, she made up her mind that tomorrow she would wear it in her usual style. The braid didn't suit her anyway.

She took her phone out of her pocket and checked for messages. Still nothing. She couldn't call Shoichi, not if he was still in the middle of dealing with the Spectres, but Sakaki might know how they were doing...

She took the medallion out of her shirt and flipped it open. "Hey, Sakaki? Have you heard anything from Luna and Astra?"

_"Not yet, but the haunt they were targeting is unravelling even now."_

Akemi sighed. "Good, I guess that means there haven't been any prob--"

The bathroom door swung open and Hana walked in. Akemi snapped the medallion closed and hastily shoved it back inside her shirt, kicking herself for not going into a stall.

"Hi!"

"Who were you talking to?" Hana asked, frowning. Then she saw the cell phone in Akemi's other hand and her expression turned to shock tinged with an anger that froze Akemi where she stood. "Wait, did you seriously sneak away from class just to call your boyfriend? I was _worried--_ "

Akemi's mouth dropped open. "Boyfriend? What boyfriend?"

Hana crossed her arms over her chest with a scowl. "Oh, come on."

"No, seriously!" Akemi had never seen Hana look so annoyed with her, not even that time she'd sort of dropped Hana's bag into the canal. "I don't have a boyfriend!"

"Right, and you don't skip track to go on dates with him, and you don't sit there texting him in class..."

Realisation dawned. "Wait, you mean Shoichi?" Akemi almost laughed, she was so relieved to have figured out the misunderstanding. "He's not my boyfriend. We don't go on dates! Nothing like that!"

Hana looked at her, and Akemi didn't feel like laughing any more, because she could see in a heartbeat that Hana _didn't believe her_.

She... couldn't remember a time, ever, when Hana hadn't believed her. Not when they were telling each other stories about other worlds, not when Akemi was explaining how she hadn't _meant_ to get them lost on the class trip, not even when she'd been so sure she'd seen a ghost...

"He isn't," Akemi said desperately. "Really."

Hana shrugged. "Okay, whatever. Either way, you spend all your time with him. Is that why you're doing so badly in school?"

"I'm not-- I'm not doing that badly--"

"Yes, you are." Hana's tone was flat. "What's going to happen when your mom finds out?"

Akemi flinched as if she'd been slapped, and anger surged up from the place where she had been worrying for weeks about that exact thing.

"Maybe I'm tired of caring about school," she shot back. "Maybe I'm sick of all the studying and pressure and I just want a break."

"Everyone wants a break!" Hana retorted. "We're all tired of it! But no-one else is ditching their friends and their grades to date some American transfer student--"

"Wha--" Akemi was almost speechless with disbelief. "Shoichi isn't _American!_ He's the most Japanese guy you've ever met! Once I saw him bow to a vending machine! And I am _not_ dating him, Hana, can you get that through your head?!"

She hadn't meant to raise her voice, but she was almost shouting when she got to the last part. Hana had flushed red and her lip was trembling, but rather than reply, she bolted into one of the stalls and shut the door. There was a long, awkward pause.

"I don't really want to talk to you anymore right now," Hana said in a muffled voice.

"Well... fine!" Akemi wanted to splash some water on her face or something to try and take away some of the redness, but she didn't want to stay another second, not after that. "I'll see you back in class."

She stormed out of the bathroom, angry and hurt. Couldn't Hana just have her back, instead of interrogating her and making all those stupid assumptions and... She wanted to scream, or possibly set a few things on fire, and instead she had to use the short walk back to the classroom to try and get herself under control and not look like she just got into a fight with her best friend...

Akemi bit her lip, slowing down as she walked. They'd never fought before. She almost couldn't believe it had happened now. And in the back her mind was the horrible, miserable certainty that it was entirely her fault, even if Hana _was_ being ridiculous about Shoichi...

As if responding to the thought, her phone finally buzzed with a new message. Shoichi said everything was fine, they were done with the haunt, it had all gone perfectly. So Akemi hadn't even needed to worry, or leave the class to check up on them. She could have just stayed put and then Hana wouldn't have come after her...

Once she was back in the classroom she tried hard to actually listen to the teacher, but she'd missed enough of the lesson that she found it hard to pick up the threads. Something about molecules? It was usually something about molecules. She scribbled as fast as she could, trying to create coherent notes.

After a while it started to creep in on her that Hana should have been back by now, even if she'd needed to take a few minutes to compose herself. She glanced at the door a couple of times. The clock was ticking steadily towards the end of class. 

Akemi was just starting to get worried when the classroom door opened and Hana slipped back in. She didn't look in Akemi's direction as she went back to her desk. In fact, she kept her head down, as if she didn't want to meet anyone's eyes. 

Akemi caught only the barest glimpse of her face, but it was enough to pierce her heart: she knew what Hana looked like when she'd been crying.

* * *

The rain was back, probably for the duration, as they were well into the wet summer season now. It was getting hot, too, sticky air making Shoichi feel damp even when he wasn't outside. At least one advantage of skipping school was that he could come to the shrine in his home clothes. It was definitely getting to the part of the year where he started to hate his school jacket with its high collar. Unfortunately, his school didn't believe in having different uniforms for summer and winter.

He was the first one to arrive. Hikari was planning to go to an after-school class to make up what she'd missed that afternoon. Akemi would probably be along soon. In the meantime he chatted with Sakaki and did some more homework. Another advantage of the fake sick day was that he'd been able to spend most of it catching up by himself. Shoichi actually felt like he'd got more out of the day than he would have in school, which was... slightly concerning, but he didn't have time for in-depth critiques of the school system right now, so he just took what he could get and ran with it.

"We need a table," he said, half to himself, as he tried to balance his notebook on his school bag to write. "Or at least a box."

"There is something along those lines behind the shrine," Sakaki said. "A crate, perhaps. It's been there a long time."

"It's probably not something I want to put my homework on, then," Shoichi replied absently. "I might just buy a table and bring it along..."

"Are such things so trivial in this time?" Sakaki asked curiously. "I was surprised that a boy your age had the wealth to purchase this tent."

"Uh..." Shoichi felt himself redden, but at least the others weren't here, so he could just explain without sounding like he was boasting. "Well. Things _are_ cheaper now, I think. Furniture doesn't have to be hand-made, it can be factory-produced with cheap materials. A tent like this is made of plastic, not canvas, so it's not as expensive. But, um, I do have a lot of money. Or, well, my parents do. More than most people. And they give me an allowance, and they usually give me money for my birthday and new year, quite a lot."

"And you have saved it?"

"I guess so. Not... deliberately, though." Shoichi sighed. "To be honest, I've never really known what to do with it. I'm not that into video games or expensive computers or anything. Or fancy phones. I don't buy high-end clothes. I buy books, but they don't cost much, and I don't really go out, you know, to the cinema or anything..." He looked around him at the tent. "This is the first time I've really wanted something that costs a lot of money. It's nice, to be able to just go out and get it, and share it with everyone."

"I understand." Sakaki's leaves rustled. "Ah, Sol is here." A pause. "She seems agitated."

Shoichi got up to open the tent door, and a minute later Akemi ducked inside, quickly closing her umbrella behind her and dumping it in the entrance space. 'Agitated' was an understatement. Akemi looked like she was about to explode.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine!" Akemi snapped, dropping down onto a cushion. She grimaced. "No, I'm not fine. Everything sucks! A lot!"

Shoichi resisted the urge to lean back away from her. He didn't think she'd find it funny right now. "What happened?"

"School! Teachers! Homework!" Akemi had tied her hair differently today for some reason, but as she spoke, she pulled the ribbon out and let it fall around her face. "Hana thinks you're my boyfriend."

Shoichi blinked, and then blinked again.

"Er," he said. Then, "I'm not, am I?"

"Of course not!" Akemi stared at him with sudden horror. "Wait, did you want to be?"

"No! Definitely not!" Okay, that came out wrong. Way wrong. "I mean, no offence! I like you very much! I just--"

But apparently his flailing had somehow been the right answer, because Akemi started to laugh, and once she started, she didn't seem to be able to stop.

"I like you very much too," she managed between giggles. "Just not in a dating sort of way."

"Right." Shoichi knew he was bright red at this point, but at the same time, a wave of relief went through him. There had been some part of his mind conscious that spending so much time with a girl he liked as much as Akemi was usually supposed to lead to a quite specific outcome, but it hadn't been one he'd wanted. "I'm glad we sorted that out."

Akemi started to get herself under control, then looked at him and went off into another round of laughter.

" _I'm not, am I?_ " she managed to quote back at him in a poor attempt at his accent. "Like you could be my boyfriend and _not notice_?"

"It's entirely possible! I'm not good at this whole dating thing!"

That appeared to just finish Akemi off, and she flopped over sideways to laugh herself out. Shoichi was torn between embarrassment and relief that she was finding the conversation so hilarious.

"I am going to pretend I heard none of that," Sakaki said, and Shoichi went even redder, if that was possible, because he'd totally forgotten Sakaki was there. "Do you feel better now, Sol?"

"Yeah, a bit." Akemi sat up again, hair now a wild mess in all directions, and made an attempt to sober up. "Sorry. It hasn't been a good day. But you guys got the haunt?"

"Yes!" Shoichi was happy to seize on something other than dating to talk about. "Hikari - Astra - did really well! She has to take the Spectres out one by one, so I think we'd struggle without you for a larger number, but for that small haunt, she just picked them off from behind my shield until the place was clear."

"With her _star lasers_ ," Akemi said with a grin. "That's great. How many more are there?"

Shoichi pulled out the list they'd been making, and Akemi shuffled around to look at it with him.

"Are there any new ones, Sakaki?" he asked.

"No."

Akemi frowned, peering through the rain-spattered window in Sakaki's direction.

"Really? None at all?"

"None."

"Perhaps he thinks he's got what he wanted," Shoichi suggested uneasily.

"Or his power is stretched to the limit and he is too proud to call in reinforcements," Sakaki said. "I have been wondering why we have not seen any sign of the other Archdukes, even though he acknowledged they were active when he first met Sol. I am beginning to think that Neikos has made a very foolish mistake in our favour."

"What do you mean?"

"I believe he underestimated you. That he has not told the other Archdukes that you have awakened. That he thought he could destroy you easily, and now he finds himself in desperate straits, and dares not admit his failure to Demogorgon."

Shoichi and Akemi stared at each other.

"That would be... so stupid," Akemi said finally. "Even for him. Wouldn't it?"

"Oh, yes," Sakaki said with a humourless laugh. "It would, and it is. But those who are drawn to the Multitude are often arrogant, or blinded by their own prejudice. He called you a little girl, didn't he? He couldn't believe you could possibly be a threat. At least, not to start with. And now I suspect he is scrambling to find a way to defeat you before Demogorgon finds out that you are even awake."

"Sucks to be Neikos," Akemi said. She didn't sound particularly sympathetic. "There's three of us now. We can tear down haunts faster than he can set them up."

"Indeed. In addition, Neikos does not yet know that we have found Astra. We may be able to turn this to our advantage when he targets the next shard-bearer."

"He didn't turn up for the last one," Shoichi pointed out. "It was just Spectres."

"And they failed," Sakaki replied. "He will have to resume pursuit of the shards in person or he stands no chance of winning them."

"Can you sense any shard-bearers now?"

"Several, but none are currently drawing the attention of the Spectres."

"Hmm." Akemi had the look on her face that meant she was about to say something she knew was outrageous, but still sort of thought was a good idea. "Maybe we could rent a billboard and put up a big sign. 'Hey Neikos, you suck, bet you don't have the guts to come to the park on Friday and face us!'"

"What if the other Archdukes see it?" Shoichi asked.

"Oh. Yeah. Never mind."

Akemi leaned over with sudden energy to grab her school bag. After digging in it for a minute, she pulled out two hair ribbons and a brush. Shoichi watched as she briskly returned her hair to its usual pigtails, and felt a little twinge of indefinable relief. Something had changed.

"Let's finish smashing those haunts," she said. "And Sakaki, tell us who the shard-bearers are. We can't follow them all at once, but we can get a headstart on knowing where they are for whenever Neikos decides to crawl out of his hole and go after them."

* * *

When Akemi walked into the classroom and saw a huddle of girls talking in low voices, her first, paranoid thought was that they were talking about her. She braced herself and walked up to the group.

"What's up?"

There was no guilty reaction; they just moved to let her into the circle. Just paranoia, then, Akemi thought with relief. The relief turned to concern when she saw that some of the girls had been crying.

"There's been another murder in Kyoto," Keiko said quietly. "Do you remember Emi?"

"Of course, she was in our class in junior high, right? Before she moved to-- oh my god, no."

"Yeah." Keiko sniffled. "They found her this morning. Just like the others."

Akemi shook her head, more out of shock than denial. "That's... I can't believe it."

One of the other girls, Sayaka, put an arm out to hug her, and Akemi accepted it without hesitation. It wasn't like she'd known Emi well. She hadn't even thought about the girl in a long time. But she remembered her clearly enough, and the idea that she was dead... not just dead, but _murdered_ , like those other girls in Kyoto... it rocked her to her core.

"Rika isn't coming in today," Keiko said. "She was really close to Emi. They stayed friends even after she moved."

"It's just awful," Sayaka added. "And they still don't have any idea who the killer is! How can they not have any clues at all?"

"They probably do know something," said Minako, whose father was a detective. "But they can't say that to the papers. They have to let him think he's safe so he's more likely to slip up."

"My mom wants me to skip clubs and come straight home tonight," Keiko said.

"Mine too," said Minako.

Akemi bit her lip, wondering when her own mother would see the news. She wouldn't be surprised if she were given a similar order, which would make things really difficult for dealing with the next haunt. Kyoto was only half an hour away by train, and the murders - had there been four now, or five? - were bizarre and brutal enough that every schoolgirl in the Kansai area had been subject to parental paranoia in the wake of each new story.

"Do they still think there might be a cult involved?" Sayaka was asking. "I mean, all that weird sacrificial altar stuff they were talking about last time?"

"I don't think anyone's found any evidence of that sort of organised--"

But Akemi had stopped listening as ice flooded her veins and froze her where she stood. Unbidden, her hand crept up to grasp her crest, and it was all she could do to stop herself from running out of the classroom to call Sakaki right there and then. The Kyoto murders had been happening for several years now. It hadn't even occurred to her to re-evaluate them after she learned of the existence of the Multitude. But... _sacrificial altar..._ the bodies were always found somewhere dark... a long enough gap between killings to build the kind of resonance Sakaki had talked about, the necessary bond to extract someone's soul... and the police had never been able to identify the murder weapon, except that it was some kind of knife...

_Sakaki would have told me, wouldn't she? If something like that was happening in Kyoto... but can she even sense it that far away? She might not know..._

And on the heels of that thought came another, terrible in its potential: _What else could the Multitude be doing outside Osaka that we don't know about?_

* * *

Hikari hurried up the steps to the shrine, trying to keep as much of herself under the umbrella as possible. Akemi's text had said it was urgent that they all meet. That had presented a problem for Hikari, since she'd already had another text from her mother telling her she'd pick her up from school today to make sure she got home safely.

So she'd done another thing she never would have imagined doing a week ago: she called her mother and said no, she was meeting some friends after school, she would be perfectly safe and not to worry. That caused an argument, of course, with her mother reminding her yet again of how _careful_ she had to be, but Hikari thought about how much Akemi and Shoichi needed her to be on the team, and held her ground.

"And anyway," she said over the top of her mother's next protest, " _even if_ the Kyoto serial killer suddenly decides to come to Osaka and find me out of all the millions of people here, he's not going to do it for another six months or so, right?"

There was a pause, and then to Hikari's surprise, her mother actually laughed wryly.

"You are so like your father," she said. "Finding the logical argument. Well... all right. I guess you're growing up, aren't you? I can't keep treating you like a child. I just worry. I'll always worry about you, I'm your mother, it's what I do."

"I know," Hikari said, smiling into the phone. "I promise I'll be careful and I won't be home late."

And that had been that, and Hikari was still smiling, happy that her mother had understood, even if only partially, when she reached the clearing.

The smile faltered when she saw how grim Shoichi and Akemi looked.

"What... what's happened?"

"There's been another murder in Kyoto," Akemi said.

"I know, my mom wanted me to go home, but I said--"

"Akemi thinks it's the Multitude," Shoichi explained. 

"I believe she is correct," Sakaki put in, her voice as oddly clear inside the tent as it always was, even though she was technically some metres away outside. "I have sensed darkness gathering outside the borders of my watch, and what they have told me of this Kyoto would put it in approximately the right area..."

"Which she didn't mention to us, apparently," Akemi said with a glare in the direction of the tree. Hikari shifted uncomfortably. "Again."

Shoichi glanced at Akemi, then added, "Is there anything else we should know, Sakaki? I understand why you wouldn't tell us everything at once when we were starting out, but aren't we at a point where we should have all the information we need?"

"Yes," Sakaki said after a hesitation that struck Hikari as oddly similar to her mother's reaction to the thought of Hikari going out after school. "Of course. You are coming into your strength now, and I should not try to shelter you. Forgive me for withholding the information, Sol. I did not wish to cause you pain, and I was afraid you might try to confront the other Archdukes before you were ready."

"They're killing people!"

"And they would have killed you if you went after them alone and unprepared."

Hikari gulped, a shock going through her at the stark statement. Shoichi looked rather pale, while Akemi hesitated, hands balling into fists before she let out an explosive sigh.

"All right, I guess I get it. I guess I might have done something stupid like that if I knew what was going on. But now it's not just me, you need to tell us everything!"

"Very well. What do you wish to know?"

"I..." Akemi seemed to deflate slightly. "I don't know! I don't know what it is we don't know!"

"Are there shards in in Kyoto?" Shoichi asked. Akemi shot him a look of such gratitude that he blushed. "What about other cities?"

"In general, no," Sakaki replied. "The shards... it is difficult to explain, but they cluster together. Whenever I reawaken, I know that they will be found in the same area, and I know I must look for new Guardians in this same place. There will always be a few isolated shard-bearers further afield... humans travel, and the eddies of fate are unpredictable... but most of them will be here in this city and its environs."

Shoichi started to say something else, and then stopped, an expression flashing across his face so fast it was hard to interpret. Hikari thought it was some sort of realisation. He shook it off, and continued.

"So whatever the other Archdukes are doing, they aren't collecting shards?"

"Not from the shard-bearers, no."

Shoichi frowned. "What does that mean?"

"There are... other shards," Sakaki said. "A small number, no more than a dozen... which are not contained within a soul. They are simply artefacts that exist in the world, and they have been passed down from Atlantis in various ways, by design or by chance. They are far more powerful than the shards taken from the bearers, but often much harder to find, as they do not react with the bright soul that bears them. I have no way of sensing their presence, but neither do the Archdukes. If I were to guess... I believe that this time Demogorgon has concentrated most of the Archdukes' efforts towards finding these potent shards as soon as possible, even if it means collecting fewer of the others at first."

Akemi groaned and brushed a hand over her eyes in a gesture that seemed far too old for her.

"So we need to be looking for those too? Where do we even start?"

"Um." Hikari realised as she spoke that she'd been quiet this whole time, and the sound of her own voice made her jump a little. "The internet?"

Shoichi and Akemi stared at her. She felt herself redden.

"I mean, I guess we aren't going to find them on auction sites listed as 'super powerful magical shard', or anything," she went on quickly. "But if they're from Atlantis, people are going to be _really_ interested in them, right? You guys said Atlantis sort of didn't _exist_ any more in history, so anyone who gets a good look at these shards will be wondering where on earth they came from. I guess some of them might be in a drawer or a box somewhere, but I bet most of them are in museums or private collections, and those have catalogues. And if there's more than one of them, someone somewhere will have figured out they're a set. There'll be people on forums and mailing lists having conversations about them and arguing about where they come from, so if we just find them..."

She trailed off, because Shoichi and Akemi were still staring at her.

"Can I hug you?" Akemi said after a moment. "I would like to hug you."

Hikari blushed, and nodded, and sure enough Akemi sort of pounced on her and hugged her like they were family.

"Start looking," Akemi said from somewhere around Hikari's ear. "That is officially your job from now on. I'm tired of being a step behind the Archdukes. We're going to find those shards first."

She let Hikari go and sat back with a look of determination on her face.

"And we're going to find the next shard-bearers and be ready for Neikos, too. Sakaki already gave us some directions, if we can just figure out where they point..."

"Um," Hikari said hesitantly, "I think I can do something with that, too. The directions. I was thinking about it after Shoichi explained the problem. I know how to code a bit. If I use one of the online map services and write a little program that uses a feed from it, I think I could do a sort of 'x marks the spot' thing where we put Sakaki's information in and it tells us where to go. I might even be able to make it into an app so we can put it on our phones..."

"I might need to hug you again," Akemi said. "How are you so awesome?"

"I didn't understand any of that," Sakaki put in, "but do I take it Astra can make it simpler for you to find the shard-bearers and haunts that I sense?"

"Yes," Hikari said with more confidence. "I can."

* * *

Satoru woke up with a searing migraine that had him stumbling to the bathroom to throw up before desperately fumbling for painkillers in the dark. He swallowed the pills and grabbed a wet cloth to put over his face, all without turning on the lights. He'd learned from that mistake the first time he'd made it.

There was a lot of advice for migraine sufferers on the internet, and he'd put some of it to use, but fundamentally he was in a different category from people whose triggers were red wine or fluorescent lights or stress; he hadn't found anyone else whose chief cause of headaches was 'prophetic visions'.

Back in his bedroom, he found his notebook by feel and managed to arrange himself so he was lying back with the cloth over his eyes and the pen in one hand. He'd be the first to admit that the notes he wrote like this, without looking, were barely legible, but 'barely' was still better than the risk of missing something important.

Definitely a shard-bearer this time. That made Satoru feel slightly better as he noted down what he could remember. About half the visions were of the people whom the Archdukes would be targeting; the other half were... he wasn't quite sure. A strange mixture of dream and memory, he thought. Flashes of the past trying desperately to tell him something that he was left scrambling to understand in the dark with the crippling pain behind his eyes. He always felt resentful of those ones, as if they served no purpose other than to make him feel terrible, and at the same time they worried him. He was pretty sure he wouldn't be getting them if they weren't important, but so far he hadn't been able to work out what any of them meant.

The shard-bearer had been a child... a small child, barely old enough for school. Satoru tried not to think too hard about what that could end up meaning. Whatever the letter said about the Celestial Guard, he believed Shoichi when he said they could save the shard-bearers.

For a moment he was distracted, thinking about Shoichi... about how monstrously unfair it was, that Shoichi of all people should have ended up a part of this whole crazy situation. How running into Shoichi again had been the best thing that happened to him in three years, and how talking to him had made Satoru feel almost normal, reminded him that there was life outside middle of the night visions and running across rooftops. How it had felt like a tiny gift from an otherwise unrelenting universe, right up until he'd recognised Guardian Luna...

He pushed the thoughts away as he always did now, concentrating on the details of the vision. It was... odd, the more he wrote. There were few details of location or context... only darkness and a sense of unease. Normally he would spend the next day after a vision piecing together as much information as he could to figure out where he needed to go, but this... there was darkness, only darkness. A glimpse of fire from Guardian Sol - so he could expect to face them again, no surprise there - and the blank masked figure that always represented Neikos in the visions. And something right at the end, something...

Satoru frowned in the darkness and immediately regretted it as the pain spiked through his temples again. With a groan, he dropped the pen and lay back on his pillow. That last detail... he wasn't sure, but he thought it was... a maze? And something about _that_ sent a jolt of fear through him, as if a deep-sleeping memory had been stirred and was sending an urgent warning.


	11. The Storm (Part 1)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long silence! More info here: http://brightwanderer.dreamwidth.org/20856.html
> 
> Also, shout out to justteaforme for reminding me why I wanted to write this in the first place. :)

These days, Sakaki rarely tried to contact them during school hours. Akemi took some credit for that, since she'd provided the clock. So when she felt the medallion tug at her awareness during lunch, a twinge of dread went through her. She closed up her lunch box and said, "I just need to, uh..."

Hana glanced at her, but didn't say anything. They'd... sort of made up? It felt weird and awkward, like they'd painted over the cracks but both knew the wall was unstable. Akemi had apologised for snapping at Hana, and Hana had, at least out loud, accepted that she wasn't dating Shoichi, but since Akemi couldn't explain exactly why she _was_ spending so much time with him - and why she kept ditching track and sneaking out of class - the whole thing still felt shaky and strange.

When she got to the roof - the bathroom had too much risk of being overheard, even though the roof would get her into more trouble if anyone found out - Akemi opened her locket with another little flicker of unease.

"What's up?"

 _"I am sensing the presence of a shard-bearer,"_ Sakaki said without preamble. _"One whom I have not felt before. They are already surrounded by Spectres - indeed, I believe they are trapped. I do not know why I did not sense them sooner, but we must move quickly now if we are to save them."_

Akemi swallowed hard. "How quickly? I can text Shoichi and Hikari and meet them right after school--"

_"It has to be now, Sol. The Multitude will not wait for you. And it must be all three of you, I fear - the shadows that I sense are deep and dark."_

So... this was it. She'd been sort of waiting for it, really. There had to come a moment where her double life collided fully, right? She took out her phone and texted the other two: _Shard-bearer in trouble right now. Get out of school however you have to and come to the shrine._

She felt particularly bad sending it to Hikari, who hadn't even had a chance to get used to this whole thing yet, but she hadn't forgotten what Sakaki had said. _They would have killed you_. This wasn't a game, and she couldn't risk any one of them being caught alone by the Spectres. They had to do this together.

"I'm on my way."

* * *

When Shoichi ducked into the tent, Akemi and Hikari already had the big map of Osaka spread out. Hikari was looking at her phone and back to the map. Shoichi didn't think she could possibly have had time to write the app she'd talked about, but then, Hikari appeared to have hidden depths, so maybe he was wrong. He put his bag down in a corner and joined them.

"We think they're around here somewhere," Akemi said, pointing at a section of the map. "The problem is, Sakaki thinks they're underground."

"Why would they be underground?" Shoichi asked, confused.

"The Spectres naturally dwell in the dark places below the surface," Sakaki replied. "Humans have long avoided such enclaves, or brought light to them, so the Multitude must find ways to leave their sanctuaries to seek out bright souls. I sense such deep shadow around this shard-bearer that I fear they have been captured and taken to where the Multitude's power is stronger." 

"There aren't any caves around here," Shoichi said, studying the map. "Are they in a basement or something?"

"Sakaki thinks it won't be anywhere that's used frequently--"

"Got it," Hikari said suddenly. She held up her phone when they looked at her. "Abandoned subway tunnels. There are two that run through that area. They aren't on the map any more but I found them on this urban exploration site."

"How do we get in?" Akemi asked.

"The site has instructions. People like to explore places like that."

"So much for 'humans have long avoided such enclaves'," Akemi said with a groan. "Did the shard-bearer just walk in there on their own?"

"It is possible," Sakaki said, "but I would still expect to have sensed them beforehand. I... do not like this. Be careful, all of you. I fear this is a trap of some sort devised by Neikos."

"Yeah, I thought of that." Akemi grabbed a pen and scribbled some directions on her hand. "But we have to go anyway."

"Be careful," Sakaki said again. "Watch the shadows."

* * *

"This is it?" Sol asked doubtfully. "It just looks like an office."

"Empty, though," Luna said, peering through one of the windows. "Everything's dusty in there."

"There's a fire exit around the back," Astra explained, leading the way to a narrow alley that skirted around the building. "Some of the other floors are still in use, so it hasn't been boarded up, but the alarm circuit's broken."

"How did anyone find that out?" Sol wondered. She glanced behind her uneasily as they filed down the alley. She didn't like the idea of getting ambushed in here. "Do they just go around trying doors all day?"

"Mostly they look at city plans and try to figure out where there might be forgotten spaces, I think," Astra said. "Sometimes someone stumbles over something interesting."

The fire door looked ominously solid, with a big sign in red letters warning that opening it would trigger an alarm, but Astra approached it confidently with a long, thin piece of cardboard she'd been carrying from the shrine. She slipped the card between the door and the frame, hitting some sort of release, and the door swung open. As promised, there was no alarm.

"Can you pick locks, too?" Sol asked curiously.

Astra looked horrified. "No! There were instructions on the site for this door, that's all..."

"Pity, that could be useful." Sol stepped inside. There were stairs going up to the other floors, and another door directly ahead. "Through here?"

"Yes. It isn't locked."

"This is kind of creepy," Luna said a few minutes later as they walked through the empty offices. "Why is there so much stuff left behind? You'd think they'd clear it out."

"I guess maybe no-one got around to it," Astra replied, as Sol peered at a noticeboard covered in faded maps of the city. "Or they thought they were coming back. They took the computers, though."

"There's someone's shoes here. Who leaves shoes behind?"

"Someone with too many shoes," Sol replied absently. "Where are we going now, Astra?"

"Um... down the hall there. Through that door there are stairs down into the basement, and then there's an access door to the tunnels. I think this office used to be part of the city development department."

They followed Astra's directions. The basement was dark, but the lights came on when Luna found the switch. Several hard hats and a reflective work jacket hung on hooks near the access door, which stood ajar. The darkness beyond felt more profound than it had in the basement, and this time the light switch didn't work.

"Are there Spectres in there?" Astra asked nervously.

"Not right here," Luna said, stepping back to let Sol take the lead. "The power's just off."

"We should have brought a torch."

"Thought about it, but we don't have pockets," Luna said. "It's okay, Sol can do her party trick."

Sol grinned, and summoned a flame to hover over her outstretched hand. Astra said, "Ooooh," in tones of suitable admiration.

The flame illuminated a short passage that led to more stairs down. The floor was concrete and the walls were unfinished cinder blocks. A cold draft oozed up from the depths.

"Stick together," Sol said. "Luna, stay in between us, and if anything moves, get your shield up."

"Okay."

Sol led the way down the stairs, the others obediently close behind her. Was it a good idea to put Astra at the back? She was still pretty new at this. But Luna was the one without any attack powers, and it made more sense to have him between them so his shield would easily cover all three of them...

The stairs went down a long way, the equivalent of two or three floors, Sol thought. They ended in a short corridor with another door standing open. Beyond was a big, dark space. The little flame didn't provide enough light to reach the edges, but it did show the train tracks. It took Sol a moment to realise what was strange about them. The actual metal tracks were long gone, but all the other parts were still in place, so her mind played tricks and filled in the space with what she knew ought to be there. It was eerie, like seeing the ghost of a mundane object.

Which way now? The tunnel stretched left and right. Sol could feel the sticky weight to the darkness that meant Spectres were nearby, but the sensation didn't come with a direction. She turned back to the others.

"Any idea where we go?" she whispered.

"Left, I think," Luna whispered back. "Can you make the flame any bigger?"

"Not without burning my hand off."

They turned left and followed the ghost-tracks along the tunnel. Sol caught glimpses of the curving roof and disused signal lights. Occasional splashes of paint on the wall marked off numbered sections of the tunnel. There was a wind running along with them that reminded her of the gust of air that came before a train arriving. Even knowing there were no tracks for it to run on, Sol found herself constantly wanting to glance behind her, in case she saw approaching lights...

Suddenly, bright white light flared around her, and she almost squeaked out loud before she realised it was Luna's shield.

"What did you see?"

"I'm not sure." Luna sounded as nervous as Sol felt. "Something definitely moved, but it might just have been a rat or a mouse, sorry."

"I told you to do that, didn't I? Keep it there for a minute."

The shield had the advantage of being much brighter than the flame, although the fact that it was between them and the darkness meant that it dazzled Sol's eyes unhelpfully. Still, she could see the whole span of the tunnel now, and further ahead than before. She squinted at the darkness. She couldn't see any rats, but there was a sense of something just outside the boundary of the light...

"Astra," she said softly, "can you see anything up ahead?"

"Maybe?" Astra whispered back. "I don't know if I'm imagining it..."

"If so, we're both imagining the same thing. Can you zap it from here? I don't want to use my fire until we know where the shard-bearer is..."

"I'll try." Astra edged forward. "I call upon the stars my liege, solitary guides of twilight. Grant me the power to strike at the dark!"

A bolt of white light sprang from her outstretched hand. For a second it lit up the tunnel in front of them for a long way, and Sol caught just a glimpse of movement as a number of shadows flinched back from the light. Then it struck home, and for a moment they all saw the Spectre it hit, bigger than a car and distinctly reptilian, before the light went out.

"Did it die?" Astra asked nervously.

"I don't think so," Sol said, still staring at the darkness ahead of them.

"Was it a snake?" Luna asked in a very quiet, very calm voice that said more about his reaction than any amount of screaming could have.

"No," Sol said firmly, even though she wasn't actually sure. "It had legs. Definitely not a snake."

"Are you just saying that to make me feel better?"

"No?"

"Okay."

Sol clenched her fists, itching to throw fire down the tunnel and burn up all the Spectres - snakes or otherwise - ahead of them. It was slowly creeping up on her that she didn't have a plan. Even though Sakaki had warned them about how powerful the Multitude was underground, she hadn't imagined this overwhelming darkness, or the sense that Spectres were pressing close around them, unseen. And she had somehow expected that they'd find the shard-bearer right away - or Neikos would jump out from behind a door - and it would all be straightforward after that.

She didn't know what to do, and the only thing that scared her more than that was the thought of letting Luna and Astra realise it.

"I can help you find the shard-bearer," said a voice from behind them. Sol spun around with a yelp, flames leaping to her fingertips on instinct, which prompted a rather less dignified, "Don't set me on fire! I'm not a Spectre!"

"Who's there?" Astra demanded.

"Kestrel," Luna answered before the voice in the darkness could.

"Yes," said Kestrel. Sol was trying her hardest to spot him in the shadows, but even with the vague idea of where his voice was coming from, she couldn't make him out. "Don't get me wrong, I can't let you have the shard..."

The image of that first shard-bearer flashed into Sol's mind, the girl who was still lying in a hospital somewhere, and for a moment she snapped. Fire leaped from her hands in a burst, directed at Kestrel's voice, but all it hit was the wall of the tunnel, and one small Spectre that had apparently been creeping up behind them.

" _Sol!_ " Luna yelled. He grabbed her arm. "Stop! He's human!"

"So are the Archdukes," Sol snarled, but she let the flames die away, shaken by her own rage. "Why would you want to help us?"

"I don't, particularly," Kestrel replied bluntly. His voice was now coming from the other side of the tunnel, but Sol didn't trust that he was actually there. "But I can't go in there alone, and you can't see in the dark. I have to help you if I want to get past the Spectres."

"What, and then you just run off with the shard?"

"I won't interfere until you've anchored the soul," Kestrel replied after a pause.

"That wasn't a 'no'."

"Sol." Luna still had a hold of her arm. He looked very pale in the light of his shield. "He's got a point."

Sol shot him an incredulous look. Luna flinched, but met her gaze.

"What else are we going to do?"

And that was the problem. She didn't have an answer. She shook Luna's hand off angrily, but she already knew he was right.

"What's to stop you switching sides when it's convenient and making Neikos the same offer?" she demanded of the darkness.

"I would die before I helped the Multitude in any way," came the icy response. "On that I swear my soul."

A bolt of recognition went through her, the same eerie familiarity as deja vu. _On that I swear my soul._ Those words were important. They meant something more than just a flowery way of making a promise. But whatever it was, it eluded her grasp, slipping away into the depths of memory like a dream.

Even so, she knew she believed him. She hesitated for one more stubborn moment, before giving in with a sigh.

"Fine," she said. "Come into the light where we can see you."

There was a pause.

"Can I... get some sort of assurance you aren't going to set me on fire?"

"Oh for... I'm not going to set you on fire!" Sol snapped. "I promise. Cross my heart. Whatever."

Another pause, and then finally some slight movement on the edge of the circle of light, and Kestrel slipped out of the shadows. He almost seemed to fade into view. The visor over his eyes glowed faintly blue, and Sol frowned at it, wondering why they hadn't been able to see its light before. The Spectres? Or could Kestrel manipulate the shadows as well?

It was the first time she'd seen him as more than a blur, and even now, she couldn't make out many details. He was wearing a long, billowing cloak in shades of blue and black, with a big hood that shadowed his face. The visor cast enough light for her to get a vague impression of his features, but they weren't particularly memorable.

"You can see in the dark?" Luna asked.

"With the visor," Kestrel replied. "There are a lot of Spectres up ahead, but they aren't blocking your path. He wants you to come further in."

"Oh, good," Sol muttered. "Fine. We'll keep the shield up--"

"Actually," Luna said quietly, "I don't think I can. It's... taking a lot out of me."

Sol looked at him properly, and realised the pallor of his face wasn't just nerves or the white light that lit it. She kicked herself for taking so long to notice.

"Damn it." Sol conjured her guiding flame over her hand. "Well, they aren't going to attack yet, right? So drop the shield now, we'll just use this for light." She cast a wary look at Kestrel. "I suppose you'd better come over here with us and stick close."

"I feel so welcome," Kestrel muttered, apparently more to himself than to them.

Sol thought she saw Luna smile wanly, but then the shield flickered out, and in the time it took her eyes to adjust to the light of the flame, the expression was gone, if it had ever been there. Luna let out his breath shakily and seemed to sag.

"Are you okay?" Astra asked.

"I think so. It's like... holding up something heavy. To start with it doesn't seem so bad, but then it just sort of gets harder and harder..." Luna shook himself. "I'll be all right in a minute. Let's keep going."

Sol wanted to ask if he was sure, but with Kestrel there, she didn't want to show any hesitation.

"Stay between Astra and me," she said. She looked at Kestrel. "You can go first, since you can see where we're going."

Kestrel returned her gaze for a long moment, as if assessing whether he thought she was going to throw a fireball at his back, then nodded. He put a hand up to the visor, and for a second Sol thought she saw faint lines or patterns appear in the glass as he looked down the tunnel.

"There's a door about 300 metres further down," he said. "Probably a maintenance tunnel, or storage. I think the shard-bearer is in there. I expect Neikos plans to surround you, and block your retreat with Spectres."

"He can _try_ ," Sol said. She glanced over her shoulder. "Are there many behind us?"

"Not too many, but they're gathering."

"And the shard-bearer's definitely in the other direction?"

"Yes."

"In that case..." Sol turned back to face the darkness behind them. "I call upon the sun, my liege, bright lord of the day. Grant me the power to overcome the dark!"

The flames that flew from her hands were fiercer and larger than anything she'd conjured before, fuelled by anger, frustration, and more fear than she wanted to admit. The fire raged down the tunnel behind them, incinerating Spectres before they had time to flee, and the flames leapt so high Sol had a terrible moment of thinking she'd messed up again, that the fire wouldn't be contained...

... but there was nothing in the tunnel that could easily kindle, and the fire died away obediently as she let the power fade.

"Let's go," she said. She gave Kestrel a pointed look. "After you, of course."

Kestrel returned the gaze without flinching. Sol had the sense that he didn't exactly approve of her burst of fire. She hoped it made him nervous, and that maybe it would make him think twice about double-crossing them.

"Of course," said Kestrel. "This way."

* * *

Luna was glad of the darkness as they crept down the tunnel. He didn't want Sol - or Kestrel, for that matter - to see that his hands were shaking. Holding the shield had taken a lot out of him. It couldn't have been more than five minutes, ten maximum, but looking back, he realised that when he'd used it in battles, he'd held it up for a fraction of that time. He wondered if practice would make it easier, like lifting weights, or if there was a finite amount of power he could draw on.

He'd have to think about that later. For now, all he could do was concentrate on pulling himself back to together, and get ready to bring the shield up again if they needed it. It would have been difficult enough under any circumstances, but seeing Kestrel up ahead, leading them into the darkness, made concentration ten times harder.

That, and worrying about Sol. She'd been so quick to unleash her fire, both on Kestrel - and Luna tried not to think too hard about that, just grateful he hadn't been hit - and on the unseen Spectres. There was an anger underneath her bravado that wasn't like her normal fierce energy. Sol could be reckless, but not like this... not like she half-wanted to burn up the world around them until there was nothing left to fight back.

"Here," said Kestrel. His voice was low, but loud enough to carry. "This is the door."

"Is it locked?" Sol asked.

"I doubt it." Kestrel cautiously reached for a handle Luna could barely see. "No, it isn't."

"Wait, I'll do it." Sol moved forward, pushing Kestrel out of the way. "Just in case..."

The fire in her other hand flared, but when she shoved the door open, there was no outpouring of Spectres. Just more darkness, and a glimpse of a narrower tunnel beyond, the walls made of rough concrete blocks.

"I really don't like the look of that," Luna said.

"Me neither." Sol hesitated. Whatever she was thinking of saying, or doing, was forestalled by a gasp from Astra.

"Can you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Sol started, then broke off as the faint sound came again. It was hard to identify, distant as it was, but as they all fell silent and listened, it became horribly clear. "Is that... crying?"

"It's a child," said Luna, a ball of dread settling in his stomach. "A young one."

"Why would there be a child down here--?" Sol started, then stopped as the realisation dawned. "Oh no. It can't be the shard-bearer. Can it?"

"It is," said Kestrel. "This way."

He slipped into the narrow passage. Sol followed. Luna looked quickly at Astra, who took a steadying breath and nodded to him to go next.

"We have to get there before they take the shard," Sol was saying as they moved cautiously in single file through the darkness. "Can't you go any faster?"

"Not unless you want us to be hopelessly lost," Kestrel snapped back. He paused to look down a side-tunnel, then continued on past it. "Besides, they won't take the shard yet. They need the child as bait."

"You think it's a trap, then?" Luna asked.

"Of course it is." They reached a junction. Kestrel took the right-hand passage without hesitation. "Neikos has finally learned to fear you. He doesn't dare to face you openly."

"Good," said Sol. She glanced back at Luna and Astra, flashing them a confident smile that didn't quite hit the mark. "Let's give him a few more things to be afraid of."

"There are a lot of turnings," Astra said. Luna thought she hadn't really been listening to what Sol was saying. "Why would the railway company make these tunnels so complicated?"

"They didn't," Kestrel said. "This is the work of the Multitude."

"They built the tunnels?"

"No, it's..." Kestrel stopped at a four-way crossroads. After looking carefully down each tunnel, he turned left. "They have a way of twisting space so it turns back on itself. Once you're inside that pocket, it's impossible to escape if you can't see the true shape of the world."

"Huh," Sol said. "They've done that a few times with the shard-bearers. And the first time the Spectres came after me..."

"This is... more complex, though." Kestrel was hesitating for longer at each junction they reached. Between his words, Luna could hear the child crying. It sounded a little closer, but it was hard to be sure. "It's a maze built of shadow. It's... harder to find the way... there's very little real space here, and it's stretched thin and warped..."

"You can see that with the visor?" Luna asked, trying not to worry about the longer and longer pauses.

"Yes." Kestrel stopped at the next turning. "But it's still hard to..."

He trailed off into silence, looking down the two tunnels that presented themselves.

"You had better not be lost," Sol said. Just as she spoke, the crying came again, louder, and she turned. "There! It's this way!"

She started to run towards the sound, but Kestrel was faster, seizing her by the arm and hauling her back. Sol turned on him with a snarl, the flame in her hand leaping higher. Kestrel dropped her arm and backed off in a hurry.

"Whatever you do, don't take off running like that," he said urgently. "If we get separated in here..."

"Don't ever grab me like that again," Sol snapped. "And _I'm_ in charge, not you--"

"Do we go the other way, then?" Luna said quickly.

"No." Kestrel sounded more certain now. "We go... _this_ way."

He walked towards what seemed like a solid wall. Just as he should have collided face first with the concrete, it shuddered, and pulled apart like a mouth opening sideways.

From beyond, the child's crying suddenly sounded loud and clear, and instead of another tunnel, the new opening led to some sort of chamber. Sol's flame didn't cast enough light to illuminate it, but there was another source of light inside... a pale, eerie glow surrounding a small boy who lay on a slab of black stone. A figure in a black cloak stood over him, knife held above his heart. The pale light was twisted and wrapped around the knife like a tangle of thread. The child was crying, but weakly, as if he had been here a long time and knew that no-one was coming to help. He couldn't be more than five years old.

Kestrel didn't try to stop Sol this time, nor Luna and Astra when they rushed after her. He simply followed, looking quickly back and forth as if assessing the room around them. Luna could see Spectres lurking in the shadows. He wondered how many more he couldn't see, and shuddered, even as he readied himself to summon his shield.

"Neikos!" Sol yelled. "Drop that knife!"

"Wait," Kestrel said, "I don't think that's--"

The cloaked figure looked up. The shadows beneath the hood were unnaturally deep, hiding the face within, but they all heard the faint, hissing intake of breath as the figure looked at them.

 _"Neikos!"_ The voice was a woman's, light and almost childish in its outrage. "You said there were only two of them!"

Even as she spoke, Spectres boiled out of the shadows behind her, swarming around the boy on the altar in a protective wall. At the same time, Luna summoned the shield, and the first wave of Spectres crashed into it, dissolving into dust like a breaking wave.

"There _are_ only two of--" came Neikos's voice from behind them, stopping mid-sentence. Luna spun around in time to see the Archduke frozen in the doorway to the room, staring at the four of them - at Kestrel, and then at Astra - and to see the naked fear that bloomed on his stolen face. "Ker! You were supposed to separate them!"

"They cheated!" shrieked Ker. "They're working with _him_!"

She gestured at Kestrel with the knife. The movement yanked hard on the strings of light, and the child _screamed_. The walls seemed to tremble.

 _"Drop the knife!"_ shouted Sol. Fire sprang from her fingertips, scorching the nearest Spectres, but stopped short before they could hurt the child on the altar. "Get away from him!"

"What's wrong, afraid to barbecue the baby?" taunted Ker. She turned the knife again, this time deliberately, and as the child screamed, Luna saw the room around them shift. The tunnel they had come from was swallowed up, while new doorways opened and disgorged yet more Spectres into the chamber. "Neikos! Start _fighting_ , you idiot!"

Neikos took a step backwards, and only then seemed to realise that the tunnel behind him had closed. "What are you doing? Let me out of here!"

"Oh, no," snarled Ker. "This was your plan, remember? You were going to crush the Celestial Guard all by yourself, weren't you? You just needed a _little_ bit of help from me. Just a tiny favour, really. In return for a chance to share in your glorious victory." She laughed, spiteful and chilling. "You're a stupid little boy, Neikos, and a coward as well. You can't slither out of this!"

Whatever Neikos might have said was forestalled by Sol sending a gout of fire in his direction. At the same time, Astra threw a bolt of white light towards Ker. But somehow, in a split second, the room shifted again. Sol's fire came roaring back towards them, splashing against Luna's shield. Astra's shot hit a blank wall in completely the opposite direction from the altar. The little boy didn't scream this time, but only, Luna thought, because he didn't have the strength left. The streamers of light wrapped around the knife were clearer now, and they tugged on the boy like puppet strings with every slight movement of the knife in Ker's hand.

Neikos snarled something in a language Luna didn't recognise. Shadows wrapped around him like armour, and Spectres rushed to protect him. Astra fired another shot. Again, the room moved around them so that it missed its mark. Luna could feel the strain of keeping up the shield creeping in on him. He tried to shut it out, to concentrate on keeping the barrier strong. Every time the Spectres crashed against it, he felt the reverberation and saw the light flicker...

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Kestrel duck down to whisper something in Astra's ear. She looked at him uncertainly, then at Sol - who was too busy burning the Spectres that came near the shield to notice - then at Luna. Luna didn't know what Kestrel had said to her, but he had to hope... he had to trust that it would help. He nodded at Astra.She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and held out her hand.

Kestrel took it. For just a moment they stood there, eerily calm in the chaos. Then Astra's other hand shot out and white light sprang from her fingertips in a perfect arc. The room tried to rearrange itself, but it was as if she was aiming down some secret path unaffected by the change.

The bolt struck Ker's knife and knocked it from her hand. As it fell, it pulled the strings of light taut. The child screamed one last time... then a bright glitter coalesced into existence above his heart, and was flung aside somewhere into the darkness along with the knife.

Ker shrieked in shock, stumbling back from the altar. The light that had surrounded the shard-bearer flared briefly bright, then vanished... and the world around them changed. The dark and cavernous room folded in on itself. The Spectres that had been pouring out of the tunnels were abruptly cut off. The altar collapsed into a stack of old cinder blocks, and in the light of the shield and the flames Luna saw the curved ceiling of the railway tunnel and the age-darkened remnants of the tracks.

"What did you _do_?" Sol shouted, staring in horror at the child's limp body.

"I..." Astra pulled her hand roughly from Kestrel's, shooting him a betrayed look. "I didn't mean--"

"It was the only way to destroy the maze," Kestrel said urgently. "I know Luna can return the soul from the shard--"

"Only if we _get_ the shard!" Sol snarled. "Don't you even think of touching it! And Luna, get over there!"

It meant dropping the shield, but the Spectres were no longer as thick as they had been. Ker was backing up in one direction. Neikos had stumbled in the other. The Guard were trapped between them, but the trap was coming apart. Luna let the shield vanish and immediately sprinted towards the shard-bearer. Behind him, red firelight flared suddenly bright as Sol let loose down the tunnel towards Neikos. Astra's bolts of energy shot past, targeting the Spectres between Luna and Ker.

Luna didn't even realise Kestrel had followed him until they reached the child. He was obviously looking for the shard, but when they reached the child's limp body, to Luna's surprise - and relief - Kestrel immediately knelt and picked him up, cradling his unconscious body protectively.

"I call upon the moon my liege, radiant lady of the night," Luna said with renewed confidence. "Grant me the power to turn back the dark!" The shield sprang up around them again, and he shouted, "Sol!"

"Stay there!" came the reply, followed by a wall of flame so fierce that Luna flinched even behind the shield.

"Ker is running," Kestrel said quietly. Luna turned to look, but he couldn't see far into the shadows. "Who's the coward now?"

Luna stood over him, trying to keep watch for any unexpected danger, but all he could see of the battle were the flashes and flares of light from Sol's and Astra's attacks. Spectres fled past him, some so careless they dashed themselves into oblivion on the shield.

Astra suddenly appeared out of the darkness, breathless and slightly sooty, but unhurt.

"Sol said to get under the shield with you," she said.

Luna let her in. Astra took a few seconds to get her breath back and then shouted, "Sol! I'm safe!"

"Awesome!" Sol shouted back. There was a fierce joy in her voice that scared Luna more than a little. "I call upon the sun my liege, bright lord of the day! Grant me the power to overcome the dark!"

Fire filled the tunnel. In its light, Luna saw the remaining Spectres - far fewer than before - caught in an inescapable net of flame. They staggered, the serpentine grace gone as they caught alight. Some crumbled to ash in an instant, others burned like charcoal, and the flames only roared higher. Luna could feel the heat even through the shield. The wooden sleepers left where the railway used to be were beginning to smolder even beneath their decades of grime. The walls of the tunnel seemed to be warping in the intense heat.

Neikos screamed. There was no mistaking the pain in his voice.

"Sol!" Luna yelled desperately. The shield was beginning to feel brittle somehow, thinner than it should be. "Sol, stop! You have to stop!"

"I have to end this!" Sol shouted back.

"I can't keep the shield up any longer!"

He thought for a moment she hadn't heard him... but then at last the fire began to die down. Afterimages crowded his eyes and made it hard to see. He felt the shield crumbling, and was forced to let it go with a shudder. His head swam. Astra grabbed his arm as he swayed, and Luna leaned on her gratefully. Hot air washed over them, along with the smell of scorched brick and burning wood.

He could see Sol now, some way down the tunnel, lit by a ring of flame that hadn't gone out. There was a crumpled figure in the centre of the ring, cowering away from the fire that threatened to consume him.

"Sol--" Luna began.

"Look out!" shouted Kestrel. 

He must have moved almost faster than his words, lunging forward to grab Astra by the arm and pull the two Guardians to the ground in a heap. The bolt of black lightning that had been aimed squarely at Luna's back shot overhead with an ugly tearing noise. Sol jumped aside, whipping around to stare back in their direction. The flames around Neikos faltered.

Kestrel staggered to his feet, still carrying the shard-bearer.

"Run!"

Astra scrambled after him, dragging Luna with her. They fled headlong down the tunnel towards Sol. From the darkness behind them came a hissing and chittering, punctuated by the scrabble of thousands of tiny things swarming... Luna risked one glance behind and saw what looked like a wave of blackness rushing to engulf them. He ran faster.

Sol was staring in horror at whatever was following them. As they ran towards her, fire raced past them in the opposite direction. Luna heard it hit the wave of darkness, or rather, heard the cacophony of pops, crackles and hisses that followed, as if Sol had turned a flamethrower on a carpet of cockroaches. He had a horrible feeling that might not be far from the truth.

They reached Sol just as the swarm caught up. Desperate, Luna pleaded with the moon for a little more power, and the shield flickered wanly into existence around them. It was only there for a few seconds, but it was just enough - just enough to deflect the first rush of insect-like Spectres, just enough for Sol to pull her fire in around them and fan the flames to a heat that incinerated the black wave even as it tried to engulf them. 

The shield vanished. Sol immediately damped the flames, though Luna still felt the scorching slap of them before they subsided. For a heartbeat there was silence, and nothing but darkness, before Sol summoned a guiding flame, holding it up in a hand that shook faintly.

The flickering light showed two cloaked figures. One was just lowering a hand. The other stood silent, apparently regarding them from beneath its hood.

"Again?" said the first figure. It was Ker's voice, filled with excitement. "Can I?"

"No," said the second. It was a woman's voice again, but older, sterner, and it echoed in a way that defied description. "This has gone on for long enough."

There was a gasp from behind them. Luna spun to look, and saw that Neikos had managed to get to his feet. He was clutching one arm against him as if it was broken, and his face had changed... and as Luna looked at the terror on it, he was suddenly sure that they were seeing Neikos's real face for the first time.

"D-Demogorgon," Neikos stammered, backing away - not from the Guard, but from the cloaked figure beyond them.

A cold shock went through Luna. Instinctively he moved closer to Sol and Astra. Kestrel did the same.

"Neikos," replied Demogorgon with undisguised contempt. "What a worthless piece of trash you are. Worse than worthless, for you have gone against my strict instructions out of arrogance and spite, and in so doing allowed the Celestial Guard to awaken without opposition."

"I-- I have opposed them!" Neikos protested. "I can explain--"

"There is no need. Ker has done so adequately. At least she understood the magnitude of your folly."

Neikos turned a look of pure loathing on Ker. "You betrayed me."

"Of course I did," said Ker sweetly. "What on earth did you expect?"

"We can take them out!" Neikos shouted, a mixture of bravado and desperation in the words. "All of them, right now! With your power, we can--"

"Yes," Demogorgon said. She lifted both hands from the folds of the cloak. In one was another obsidian knife, longer and more ornate than the blades Neikos and Ker had used. "We can. And I shall extract some worth from you after all."

She thrust the blade forward and black lightning crackled around its tip. Neikos took one look and turned to run, but the bolt of lightning sprang after him faster than a thought. It struck him with a sound like an earthquake. The tunnel shook as Neikos staggered and fell to his knees. He _screamed._ Ker laughed. 

Demogorgon's hood turned to look at the Guard. 

"Let me show you a true labyrinth," she said, and jerked the knife back as if reeling in a fishing line.

The whole world twisted and buckled around them. Neikos was screaming and screaming, and Sol was shouting, trying to summon her fire, and suddenly Kestrel frantically grabbed Luna by the shoulder.

"You said you can anchor a soul - do it now!"

"Whose soul?" Luna gasped.

"Your own!" Kestrel shouted desperately.

There was no time to think, or to wonder if it was possible, or to ask why. Luna seized hold of the bright line in his mind's eye, cast it away as far as he could throw...

Then the world fragmented into a thousand pieces around them.


	12. The Storm (Part 2)

The pieces of the world were flung together and apart like a kaleidoscope, coming back together in strange patterns. Luna felt Kestrel pulled away from him as if by a current of water. He tried to catch hold of the hand that had been on his shoulder, but Kestrel was already gone, as were Sol and Astra. For a moment he was nowhere at all, caught between light and darkness, and then he was falling to a hard floor. The smell of antiseptic and the rhythmic hum of life-support equipment crept in on his awareness.

He was sitting on the floor of a hospital room. As he jumped to his feet, he saw that the bed was occupied by the elderly woman whose soul he had successfully retrieved from its shard. She was in the same state she'd been in before that, comatose, and in his hand was the shard, warm and pulsing. It was like _deja vu_ given form. 

Except he could feel the soul anchor, tying him to something very distant. And the shard in his hand... it wasn't really there, he realised. The room in front of him took on a dream-like quality. Luna blinked, and in the second his eyes were closed, the hospital room vanished, leaving him standing in a dingy hallway. The numbers on the doors indicated an apartment building, but the corridor was far longer than could fit inside any tower block in Osaka.

"Sol? Astra?" he called. There was no response. "Kestrel?"

Nothing, except a door opened somewhere down the hall and somebody stuck their head out to glare at him before shutting it again.

_Now what?_

The soul anchor was tugging on him, very gently, indicating a direction. Luna started walking down the corridor, checking the shadows for Spectres, following the pull. There was nothing in the shadows. The corridor seemed entirely mundane, apart from its impossible length.

At least, it did until he glanced behind him, and saw that every door was opening as he passed, and silent faces were peering out, watching him go.

* * *

"Wait, what?" said Sol, looking around her in confusion.

She was in the park near her home. Had they been teleported out of the tunnels? But it was the middle of the night. There was no way that much time had passed while they'd been fighting Neikos and Ker...

Then she saw the shard-bearer, sprawled on the dusty ground near the drinking fountain. He looked so tiny. She ran towards him, hoping against hope that she'd been wrong, that Ker hadn't ripped his shard out as the maze shattered...

... and she found herself running the other way, all turned around and disoriented. The shard-bearer was right there, but she couldn't reach him.

Just like that first time she'd been attacked...

"It's another maze," she said aloud. "This isn't real."

She closed her eyes and took a firm step forward. When she opened them again... she was still in the park. But somehow she had reached the shard bearer. She started to kneel by his side, then stopped, frozen at the sight of the blood pooling under his small, broken body...

She wasn't sure if she screamed, or if the screaming was only in her head, but either way, the force of it turned her around and drove her fleeing for the edge of the park.

And again she found herself coming back to the centre. And now, instead of being unable to reach the child, she couldn't seem to avoid him.

"This isn't real," she whispered again, closing her eyes and keeping them closed.

It didn't help.

* * *

It was taking all Luna's willpower not to start running. Or keep looking over his shoulder. He'd looked twice now, and both times, the lines of staring people had gone back as far as he could see. He was trying very hard not to look again, but... what if they were creeping up on him...?

Just as he was about to give in, he realised the tug of the soul anchor had shifted. It was no longer pulling him directly down the corridor, but at more of a diagonal. Luna paused by the next door on that side. Walking in a straight line was obviously not getting him anywhere, and he had to get away from those silent people behind him. Tentatively, he knocked on the door.

Nothing happened. No-one answered, and the people back down the corridor didn't react. Luna tried the handle. The door opened, but the space beyond was dark. He hesitated for just a moment before stepping through.

The door immediately swung shut behind him, leaving him in darkness so complete that he couldn't even see where the doorway had been. Then his eyes adjusted - or the darkness itself lightened - and he saw that he was back in the railway tunnel where they had been fighting the Archdukes.

Relief swept through him. But where were Sol and the others? Did he need to go back into the maze and get them?

A faint blue glow caught his eyes, and then the outline of a figure on its knees further down the tunnel.

"Kestrel?"

The figure did not respond, but again Luna's eyes seemed to adjust to the light levels. He could clearly see it was Kestrel, hood back, visor glowing, facing away from him, cradling the shard-bearer. His stillness was frightening. Luna's heart began to pound.

"Kestrel!" He took a step forward. "Satoru?"

A hand closed on his arm, preventing him from taking another step. Luna yelped and spun around, pulling roughly free of the unexpected grip... and stopped, mouth open.

"That isn't me," said Kestrel - the Kestrel standing right next to him, hood still shadowing his face, not the one kneeling further down the corridor. He, too, was holding the shard-bearer, but somewhat more awkwardly, keeping the child in place against his chest with one arm. "It's part of the maze."

"We're still in the maze?" Luna asked. Then he had another thought. "Wait. How do I know _you're_ the real one?"

Kestrel opened his mouth to answer, then paused, frowning.

"I... that's a good point," he said after a moment. "I can see you're real with the visor, but I don't know how I'd prove I am to you..."

Despite everything, Luna laughed. The puzzled, contemplative expression behind the glass of his visor was so _Satoru_.

"Never mind, you've convinced me," he said.

Kestrel gave him a confused look. Luna shot him a smile and turned back towards the illusion.

In the instant of his turning, the darkness around them shifted form. The kneeling figure of Kestrel was gone, as were the tracks and the tunnel. They were standing in a theatre - standing on the stage, in fact - a cavernous, dark space in front of them.

"Okay..."

Suddenly, spotlights sprang into existence. Luna flung up a hand to shade his eyes, momentarily blinded by the light. He sensed more than saw Kestrel move so they were back to back. When his vision had adjusted to the glare, he realised that the theatre wasn't empty after all.

Every seat was occupied, and every occupant was staring at them. Silently. Except that every so often, one of them would turn and whisper something to their neighbour, and then both would look back at the stage, and shake their heads.

"Let's... go somewhere else," Kestrel murmured.

Nothing stopped them from walking off-stage into the wings. Beyond the stage were pieces of scenery and props. Luna kept walking, expecting to reach a door, or find himself somewhere else, but instead, they just kept going past wooden trees, cardboard fences, and huge painted cloth skylines.

"This isn't like the other maze."

"No." Kestrel was sticking close at his side, and Luna couldn't deny that he was happy with that arrangement. "She said a 'true labyrinth', didn't she?"

"Demogorgon?"

"Don't say her name. Not here."

Luna repressed a shiver. "Sorry."

"I'm not sure what that means," Kestrel went on. "A true labyrinth. But I think our only chance of getting out of here is if you managed to anchor yourself--"

"I did," Luna said quickly. "I can feel it pulling me..." He paused, then pointed, "... that way. But it's hard to follow it when the world keeps shifting."

"That part I can help with," Kestrel said. "I can find the right paths, if you can point me in the direction we need to go."

"We need to find the others first."

Kestrel nodded, seemed to debate with himself, then said abruptly, "If we get out of here, I have to get the shard..."

"So do I," said Luna. "To return his soul to his body."

"I don't want to stop you doing that. But I can't let you have it, either..."

"And I can't just give it to you." Luna sighed. "Look, we can deal with that when we get there. For now, there's no reason not to work together. Right?"

"Right," said Kestrel, with only the barest hesitation.

They kept walking.

"Is it me," Luna said a few minutes later, "or is this scenery starting to look like Osaka?"

"Yes. The area around Umeda." Kestrel shifted the weight of the shard-bearer in his arms. "Were you thinking about Osaka particularly?"

"No? Why would I be--" Luna stopped. "Actually... I suppose I was, in a way."

"In what way?"

Luna glanced at Kestrel briefly, then said, as neutrally as possible, "Sakaki told us the shards are mostly in Osaka. I was... wondering if that was why you didn't go to Tokyo."

"Oh." A short silence. "Yes. That's why."

"What does any of that have to do with the scenery, though?" Luna went on hurriedly.

Kestrel seized on the question, clearly as eager to change the subject as Luna was.

"Some of what we're seeing is... based on our memories, I think," he said. "Before I found you, I was... I saw you anchor that boy's soul, the one from a week ago. I was standing on the roof. It was like _deja vu_..."

"I had something similar," Luna said slowly. "But seeing you in the tunnel wasn't a memory."

"Associations," Kestrel said. "Like dreaming. Images constructed from memories, tied to thoughts and emotions we're experiencing at the time..."

He stopped, looking down a street to their right. Luna looked in the same direction, and saw that people had started to move up and down the street. They were jerky, like puppets, and as he watched, they each turned to stare at him...

"And this is a theme," Kestrel said thoughtfully. "People staring. Crowds. Watching. That's not coming from me. I don't think it's you, either."

"I really hope not, or I have some issues I don't know about."

Kestrel half-laughed, a surprised puff of air that took the serious, thoughtful look out of his eyes for a moment. Only for a moment, as his gaze returned to the puppet crowd and his brow furrowed. He put a hand up to his visor, touching lightly with his fingertips, and Luna saw a swift flicker of lines and glyphs across the glass. Kestrel's frown deepened, and he tensed.

"Some of those people are Spectres," he said. "Or... not quite? Either way I think we should move faster."

"I didn't even think of that," Luna said as they moved quickly in the opposite direction from the crowd. "That there could be Spectres in here with us. How many were left when De-- when the labyrinth was cast?"

"Not many."

"We'd better hope we find Sol or Astra before they decide to attack us, then."

"Can you use your shield?"

Luna reached for the power of the moon and winced. It felt like trying to use a muscle that had been strained past its limit.

"If I really have to."

Kestrel shot him a concerned look. "Be careful. You're channelling a lot of power when you use it. Sol's fire and... whatever it is Astra does--"

"Star lasers."

That surprised another laugh out of Kestrel. "Star lasers?"

"You have a better name?" Luna asked. Despite the strange and dire situation they were in, he felt the same rush of warmth from making Kestrel laugh as when it had been just him and Satoru in the library.

"I guess not. Well, the fire and the... star lasers... are quick bursts of power, but your shield is sustained. Looking at the energy matrix on the visor, you'll probably be able to do it for longer with practice, but if you push too hard you risk burning it out completely."

"What happens then?"

"I don't know. At best, you won't be able to use the shield at all until you recover. At worst..." Kestrel stopped. "I don't know. Just be careful."

"I will," Luna promised.

* * *

The smell of smoke was overwhelming and the air was choked with fumes. Sol struggled to breathe as she fought to hold back the fire by sheer force of will. She could hear the flames crackling all around, and the heat was overwhelming, but she couldn't see the fire, only the blinding clouds of grey and black smoke, and the dim awareness of someone slumped on the ground at her feet, someone she had to protect.

She thought she was in her school. Sometimes she caught glimpses through the smoke of a classroom she recognised. But sometimes she saw long hallways lined with white marble pillars, nothing like any school she'd ever been in...

There had to be a way out somewhere. She couldn't breathe. The smoke was thick and bitter and any second now it would fill her mouth and lungs, but she couldn't run. She couldn't leave them, here at the end of the world. She had to hold back the fire...

"Sol!"

Luna's voice was faint, and for a moment incomprehensible. How could he possibly be calling her? Then the smoke seemed to fade into something more like mist, and suddenly Sol knew where she was again. _This isn't real_. Just like the park hadn't been real. She closed her eyes and pressed her hands against her face, and slowly the smell and taste of the smoke ebbed away.

"Luna?"

There was no reply. Had she imagined it? Sol carefully took her hands away from her face and risked a look. She wasn't in her school after all, but some sort of library. There were people sitting at desks, studying... or at least, they were supposed to be studying. They were actually staring at her, faces emotionless.

"Luna!"

Still nothing. Either she'd imagined it, or this place had shifted somehow to hide him from her. Sol shook herself. She glared at the nearest staring person.

"What are you looking at?"

The effect was startling. All the people in the library shimmered and vanished like a bubble popping in the face of her challenge. Sol looked around warily, but she now seemed to be alone.

"Okay then," she said. 

There didn't seem to be anything to do except start walking. The library was a maze of shelves that nearly reached the ceiling. She figured at first that there must be an exit around one corner or another, but after a few minutes, it became clear that the library was far bigger than it had any right to be.

"Still not real," she muttered to herself. "Where the heck am I?"

Just as she was starting to think seriously about climbing one of the book shelves, she came around a corner and saw something different. The lights were out in this aisle of books, and from the end came a pale blueish glow like the light from a television. Sol cautiously moved down the dark row and peered around the next corner.

The light was coming from a computer monitor. It dimly lit its surroundings, and Sol saw a small bedroom, so small that the end of the bed was serving as a chair for the person hunched over at the computer. The light from the computer flickered over his face as he switched between windows, typing furiously in the text boxes that came up. He had an unhealthy look about him, as if he hadn't moved from that spot for a very long time.

"Hey--" Sol started, but just as she spoke, the guy at the computer slammed his fist into the keyboard so hard she jumped. She edged closer, trying to read his screen. Something about being kicked out of a group or banned from something - but it vanished as he closed the tab angrily and immediately started typing again in another window. Sol didn't need to read much of it to get the gist: a litany of threats, graphic and revolting, against the people who'd kicked him out.

"Hey!" she said, louder.

The guy spun around, staring at her in horror. He tried to back up, but his scrawny shoulders hit the wall and he could go no further.

"No!" he said. "No, don't! Don't!"

"Don't what--"

Before the words were even out of her mouth, he caught fire. Right in front of her, like someone had ignited gasoline that was soaked into his clothing. He screamed, writhing in the flames as he tried to beat them out, succeeding only in spreading the fire to the bed he was sitting on. Sol started to run towards him, but the fire leapt up to impossible proportions, and she could just see him shrivelling in the centre of it as his skin peeled and his flesh melted.

"Stop!" Sol cried out, horrified. "I didn't--- I didn't do this!"

From the depths of the fire, where the ruined face should have been, two eyes as black as void opened, and then she recognised him, even though by rights there was nothing left to recognise.

"You tried," said Neikos.

The fire went out like a light being switched off. Sol stumbled backwards, and in the time it took her eyes to clear the afterimages, the world changed again. Her back hit a chain link fence. In front of her was a school yard, full of kids eating their lunches and playing.

As she struggled to regain her equilibrium, she noted without surprise that they were all staring at her.

* * *

"I'm sure it was Sol," Luna said. "But then we lost her somehow."

"She's in deeper than we are," Kestrel said. They were standing in the grounds of a school, though Luna couldn't tell if it was one he knew. Kestrel had taken a moment to put the unconscious child down on a bench and was stretching his arms. It was night, but Luna couldn't see the stars, and that was bothering him for some reason. "Further towards the heart of the labyrinth. Think of it like a spiral. We crossed over her path briefly, but we were on different levels."

"If she's in deeper, we aren't going to find her by following the soul anchor," Luna said. "We'll have to go back."

Kestrel sighed, and nodded. "It's dangerous - the deeper we go, the harder it is to find the real paths, even with the visor. We'd better hope she's not too far down or we could be in trouble."

Luna looked around. Outside the school fence, dark silhouettes were watching them.

"More trouble than we're already in?"

"Yes." Kestrel bent to pick up the shard-bearer. "I get the impression this place is designed to draw us further and further into the centre. The Spectres are probably moving that way as well, hoping to trap us there."

"Great." Luna watched Kestrel settle the unconscious child back against him. "Um, do you want me to take a turn at carrying him?"

"Thank you, but I'd rather you be ready with your shield if it's needed."

Luna nodded. "Which way, then?"

"Into the school."

They made their way through the front doors. There was something creepy about an empty school at night, Luna thought, even before you added in the silent faces starting at them from every classroom window. From somewhere deeper in, Luna could hear the faint sound of... crying, he thought, but the kind of crying where the person doing it was trying to muffle the sound and get a hold of themselves. And failing, apparently.

"More eyes," Kestrel said, mostly to himself.

"Should we go towards the crying?"

Kestrel shifted the child in his arms so that he could put a hand up to the visor. He looked down the dark corridor for several long seconds.

"Yes," he said finally, "There are Spectres there, but I think--"

The words were interrupted when the person who was crying seemed to gather her courage to say aloud, "Go _away!_ "

As soon as she spoke, Luna recognised her voice.

"Astra!" He started toward the sound, stopped, and looked at Kestrel. "Wait. Is she really--?"

"It's her," Kestrel said. "Through those doors."

Luna rushed to the doors indicated and pushed them open. Beyond was a standard locker room, much like the ones in his own school. Astra was huddled in a corner, knees pulled up to her chest, trying so hard to hold back her sobs that it broke Luna's heart. There were more of the silent, staring people in the room, all looking at her.

"Astra?" He wanted to use her real name, but he couldn't, not with Kestrel there. "It's okay, it isn't real..."

Astra's head jerked up, eyes wide and tearful. "Luna? Are _you_ real?"

Luna crossed the room in three quick strides, dropped to the ground, and pulled her into a hug. After a second, she clung onto him so fiercely he thought she might leave bruises.

"Pretty sure I'm real," he said. "How long have you been here?"

"I don't know... to start with, I was somewhere else - then there was a train - and then I was here and it was _awful_."

"All the staring?"

"That, and..." Astra bit her lip. "This is the _boys'_ locker room."

Luna almost made a joke - almost - but there was something about the way she said it... something that carried the weight of true terror, not just passing embarrassment.

"It isn't real," he said, hugging her tightly again. "Kestrel thinks this place... reacts to things that are in our heads. Memories and things."

"Kestrel?" Astra pulled back from the hug to look over his shoulder. Dismay crossed her face and she hastily rubbed at the tears there. Very quietly, too quietly for her voice to carry, she said, "Can we trust him?"

"Yes," Luna said, maybe with more certainty than he should. "He warned me to use the soul anchor before we were pulled in here. He can help us follow it out."

"Oh." Astra looked over at Kestrel again. "Is that the little boy? Is he okay?"

"He isn't injured." Kestrel moved over to join them. "But they took his shard, and his soul with it."

Astra's lip wobbled again but she took a deep breath and scrubbed her eyes more fiercely with her gloved hands. She carefully pulled away from Luna, and they both stood up.

"How do we get out of here?"

"First we need to find Sol," Luna said. "Somehow."

"I thought I saw her," Astra said. "Before - that's why I came in here. But then there were only _those..._ "

With a sudden burst of anger, she flung out her hand and threw a bolt of white light directly at one of the staring people. When the shot struck, the nondescript person flickered and for a moment took on the more familiar outlines of a Spectre. Then it crumbled to dust. The other people in the room faded out with a faint hissing sound, and the locker room became less solid around them.

"That's interesting," muttered Kestrel.

"What is?" Astra asked, looking around warily.

"It's like the others were copies of that one." He paused, his expression suddenly tightening. "Like reflections."

"What does that mean?"

"It means they'll keep coming," Kestrel said, "until you destroy the real ones."

"How do we tell which ones are real?" Luna asked.

"I should be able to figure it out with the visor, now I know what to look for."

"We'd better hope nothing happens to that visor," Luna said fervently.

"It can't be broken or taken from me," Kestrel said after a moment that stretched fractionally too long for comfort. "So we should be fine."

Luna nodded, but as they began to walk through the misty outlines of the school again, he glanced more than once at Kestrel, trying to read his face. He believed Kestrel that the visor couldn't be broken, but there was something about the way he'd said it...

Luna couldn't exactly explain why, but a cold feeling of dread was settling in his stomach as they moved deeper into the labyrinth.

* * *

Now she knew what to look for, Sol caught glimpses of Neikos wherever she went. After she left the school, she wandered through the streets of Osaka, and then found herself on a subway platform, waiting for a train that, when it arrived, was full of more silent, staring people. Neikos pushed past her, hunched in on himself, the hood of a dingy sweater pulled up as if to try and hide his face - but somehow, now, Sol recognised him instantly whenever she saw him. There were no masks he could wear here.

She dived after him, but the crowds closed around them, and she couldn't reach the train before the doors closed. As it pulled away from the station, she suddenly realised that the people weren't staring anymore.

No... that wasn't right. They were still staring. But they were staring at Neikos, not her. As he'd climbed onto the train, they'd turned their faces to follow him.

She looked around for any indication that another train was coming. The screen at the end of the platform just showed an error message. Just as she'd decided to leave the station, her phone chimed to indicate a new email. She had flipped it open before she remembered that she'd left it in her bag at the shrine...

But it was here in her hand, and there was a new message icon on the screen.

_bitch_ , said the message. Sol stared at it with a mixture of shock and anger. Her eyes went to the sender's name: Neikos. _are you happy now, you stupid slut? everything was fine until you showed up and ruined it, bitch. i hope you die in a fire. no wait you know what you need? a good hard--_

Sol snapped the phone shut in disgust. _It's not real_ , she reminded herself. After a moment she hurled the phone as far away from herself as she could, and took a certain satisfaction in the way it smashed against the far wall of the station.

The screen at the end of the platform flickered to life. Text started to appear letter by letter as if it was being typed as she watched.

_stupid bitch. stupid slut. i'm gonna find out who you are, and I'm gonna tell everyone. you ruined everything and I'm gonna fuck you up so bad, you just wait, i'll tell them where you live, let's see how brave you are after six guys hold you down and--_

"You're disgusting!" Sol shouted, feeling herself flush red with almost uncontrollable anger. "You want to come out and say that to my face, Neikos? It isn't me who's going to die in a fire!"

Even as she said it, she knew it was an empty threat. The image of his body burning in the flames still haunted her. She thought she was probably okay with punching him, though. She'd never hit anyone before, even though she'd wanted to a few times, but she figured it couldn't be that difficult. And if she hurt her hand, it would heal, right? Hopefully quicker than his face.

When she tried to leave the subway, the steps led up into a school gym. Middle school students were practising on the bars. Sol scowled at the scene, familiar enough from her own memories, and then shuddered as she remembered the pattern of Neikos's haunts.

"You're disgusting," she said again. Another thought occurred. "And what is it with schools? Seriously. You know there are, like, other places in the world, right?"

Just for a second, the scene wavered, as if it were reacting to her voice. And just for a second, she felt like she was back in that dimly lit, cramped bedroom, the walls as close as a second skin. She shuddered.

At the other end of the gym, she thought she saw Neikos slinking out of the door. She ran after him. As she passed the other students, she was suddenly conscious of a darkness in the air, and a whispering that didn't quite sound like voices.

_Spectres?_

Flame sprang to her hands... and died away again. She didn't know what would happen if she used it in this place. Maybe she'd burn a few Spectres. Or maybe she'd watch a group of children die screaming...

_I wish I could find the others._ Sol stopped at the doors to the gym, reluctant to go through them when she didn't know what was going to be on the other side. _I... really wish Luna was here. He's better at stuff like this..._

She hoped for a second that thinking of Luna might mean she heard his voice again... but this time there was only silence.

_Okay then. Just me._

* * *

"Why does she keep going deeper?" Astra asked.

"I have no idea," said Kestrel, with some irritation in his voice, "but I wish she'd stop. And maybe think for two seconds..."

"Hey," Luna protested, "it's not like she knows where she's going. And you said this place was designed to pull us into the centre."

"Yes, but the rest of us didn't start actively running towards it, did we?"

Luna glared at Kestrel.

"That isn't fair. You have the visor, I have the soul anchor..."

"And I was too freaked out to go running anywhere," Astra put in. "Except _away_ , which is, um... I'm not sure where that is."

"And that's kind of the point," Luna went on. "Maybe she thinks she's heading out."

"I suppose so," Kestrel said after a moment, grudgingly. "But she's not exactly the queen of impulse control..."

Luna stopped walking. Astra paused by his side, glancing nervously between them.

"Let's get something clear," Luna said. The coldness of his own voice startled him. "Sol is our leader. She's my friend. We're cooperating with you to get out of here, but you do _not_ get to start trash talking her, okay? You don't even know her!"

Kestrel seemed taken aback by his anger, and for a moment, contrite, although again he pushed the expression off his face. That made Luna angrier, in a different way. Why was he trying to act like he had no feelings? What sort of stupid idea was that? And why couldn't he just tell them what he wanted the shards for?

"Understood," was all Kestrel said.

They continued walking in silence.

* * *

Sol was sure now that there were Spectres in the shadows. She could feel the stickiness of their crowded presence. Was Neikos leading her into a trap? It seemed likely, but she didn't know what else she could do except follow him.

The further she went, the more the scenes around her seemed to repeat... schools, streets, trains, and always the staring faces. It was as if the world was narrowing down to a few specific locations, and in all of them, Neikos was rushing to get away, even while he spewed vile threats at her through every screen she passed. It was like a dream where she could never catch up to the person she was pursuing, no matter how fast she ran.

Except then she pushed open a door and found herself back in that tiny bedroom. This time it was lit by thin bars of sunlight that had managed to sneak through the blinds that covered the window. Someone was curled up tightly in the bed, covers pulled right up over his head. Neikos? This time he wasn't running.

Sol looked around. The small room was obsessively neat and tidy. Apart from the bed and computer area, every scrap of space was put to use with storage shelves and boxes. She peered into one of the clear plastic crates. She honestly expected it to be full of comic books or collectible figurines, but instead it seemed to contain photo albums, each labelled with places, dates, and names, many of them in languages other than Japanese.

After the chaos of the chase, this still, quiet room unnerved her. She looked at the figure in the bed. She had no doubt it was Neikos, but... what now? What was she supposed to do with him if he was just going to lie there?

"Neikos," she said finally. It came out softer than she'd intended. "What is this place?"

"Home," came the response from beneath the blankets.

"This is where you live? Just this room?"

"It's safe here."

"Safe from what?"

"Everybody else."

Sol looked at the small electric kettle, the collection of bottled water, and the stack of instant noodles on one shelf. A clean bowl and chopsticks sat next to them. She saw no other plates or cups.

"You're... _hikikomori_ , aren't you?" she said slowly. "One of those people who shuts themselves in away from the world. Do you ever leave this room?"

"Only when I have to--" began Neikos, but he was interrupted by a sound of scorn from the doorway Sol had just come through.

She spun to look, and felt shock ripple through her. Neikos was standing in the doorway - Neikos as she knew him, black-cloaked, wearing a borrowed face... though here and now, she could see the cracks in the disguise.

"I can leave whenever I want," said the Neikos in the door. "They can't see me now. I can be anyone. I can have anything I want. I can live any life I like, and no-one can stop me."

Sol felt her anger rekindle. "I can stop you."

"Too late," said Neikos.

The room shattered around them. Sol tried to run towards Neikos, but she found herself racing down a corridor without end, with only the faintest glimpse of him up ahead...

"Sol!" This time Luna's voice was clearer. "Stop! You're going deeper into the labyrinth! Stop running!"

It took all her willpower to do as he said. The need to pursue Neikos, to catch him and punish him, was almost overwhelming, but she made herself stand still. She looked around, but saw nothing except the long corridor and the line of doors.

"Luna? Where are you?"

"Almost there," came the reply. "We're just trying to find the right path..."

One of the doors up ahead opened. Sol tensed, half-expecting a Spectre... then relief washed through her as Luna stepped through, followed by Astra. She scowled when they were followed by Kestrel, carrying the child who was unconscious because of him.

"What's _he_ doing here?"

"Helping us get through the maze, like before," Luna replied with a brief, unreadable glance at Kestrel. "None of this is real."

"I figured that part out," Sol said. "But Neikos is in here, and I'm not letting him get away this time--"

"He isn't here," Kestrel said. There was a quiet certainty in his voice. "Whatever you've seen, it's only an illusion."

"How the hell would you know?" Sol demanded. "He's definitely here - he's been spewing all this gross stuff at me..."

"He isn't here," Kestrel repeated, "because he's dead."

There was silence.

"What?" Sol managed.

"It's taken me a while to figure it out," Kestrel said. He glanced at Luna, as if the words were directed more at him than Sol. "Ker used the shard-bearer's soul to build the first maze. I think Demo-- the leader of the Archdukes used Neikos's soul to create this labyrinth, and she didn't care what happened to him. She tore his soul apart with the obsidian dagger and built this world with it."

"Then the parts that aren't coming from our memories..." Luna said slowly, a look of horror dawning on his face.

"Are from Neikos. This is one dying instant stretched to infinity, a mirror reflecting his soul back on itself until we can find a way out."

"Oh my god," Sol whispered. "That's... that's awful."

"Yes," Kestrel said. "Even for someone like Neikos."

Sol shuddered and wrapped her arms around herself. Astra looked like she might cry. Luna had gone pale again.

"So I've been seeing his... memories?" she said. "Parts of his life?" Sol felt a mixed rush of anger and revulsion. "Oh my god, he's so _pathetic_. He lives in this tiny room and never goes out..."

"And he joined the Multitude of his own free will," Kestrel said. "Pity him if you like, but don't forget what else he is."

Sol nodded, thinking of the words on the screens and the spite in Neikos's voice. "Even before he was an Archduke, he was horrible. Nothing's ever his fault, you know? He always blames someone else, and he tries to wreck their life if he doesn't get what he wants..."

And she still felt sorry for him, despite herself. What an empty, sad existence...

"How do we get out of here?" she asked.

Luna explained quickly about the soul anchor and Kestrel's visor.

"You can do that? Anchor your own soul?"

"Apparently."

Sol stared hard at Kestrel. "How did you know he could do it?"

"Lucky guess," Kestrel replied. Whatever expression that answer brought to Sol's face apparently made some dent in his calm, as he went on hurriedly, "We should get moving."

Sol cast one last look in the direction Neikos had vanished. _He's already dead._ It shook her that she still wanted to chase him down and make him suffer somehow. _Isn't death enough of a punishment?_

"Let's go," she said.

* * *

Kestrel led them through a door - a different door from the one they'd just come through, Luna noticed - and back out onto the streets of Osaka. It was dark, a heavy storm darkness that hid any glimpse of the moon or stars, and thunder rumbled in the distance. The shadows pooled deep and dark around them, and Luna didn't need Kestrel's quick warning to know they were full of Spectres.

Summoning the shield this time was almost painful. Luna had to close his eyes to keep it steady, trusting in Sol and Astra to fight off the Spectres massing on all sides.

"There are so many!" he heard Sol shout. "And they just keep coming!"

"They aren't all real," Kestrel replied. His voice was very close; he must be standing right next to Luna. "Most of them are copies of the others... you need to take out the real ones."

"How do we tell which ones are real?"

"You can't. I can." A pause. "There! That one!"

A rush of crackling flame followed his words, and Luna heard Sol's surprised exclamation.

"It worked - look at those others falling apart!"

"They want to keep us here in the centre of the labyrinth," Kestrel said. "There can't be many real Spectres, but they'll keep reflecting themselves into an army to prevent us from leaving."

"They'll _try_ ," Sol said.

Luna felt the shield slipping from his grasp. His eyes flew open and he managed to choke out a warning, but as his vision cleared, he saw that the number of Spectres had reduced enough that Sol and Astra could keep them at bay. His head swam. A hand on his arm steadied him, and he flashed Kestrel a grateful look.

"Which way?" Kestrel asked. Luna pointed in the direction the soul anchor was tugging him. "Then we need to go... down here."

Sol shot him a look that said she wasn't anywhere near ready to trust him yet, but the fact that he'd been right about the Spectres seemed to go some way towards mollifying her, and she said, "Okay, come on then."

It felt like they had to fight for every step they took. Sol and Astra destroyed dozens of copies of Spectres, but unless they could single out the occasional real one, the horde just replenished itself. For the first time, Luna really understood the concept of a _Multitude._ And for the first time, he wasn't sure they could win.

But something started happening, subtle at first, so subtle he probably wouldn't have noticed if he'd been more involved in the fighting. The other three - Sol, Astra, and Kestrel - seemed to fall into sync with each other. Sol didn't hesitate any more when Kestrel told her where to send her fire, and Kestrel responded so swiftly and accurately to each new situation that the other two Guardians could tear the Spectres apart almost before they attacked. It was like watching something rehearsed, like a long-forgotten rapport built on years of practice kicked in, and it seemed so familiar to Luna that it hurt, a deep ache in his heart.

Then all at once, Kestrel was saying, "There, that's the exit!"

The Spectres were thick between the Guard and the nondescript doorway Kestrel was pointing to, but Sol was already conjuring flame to race ahead of them... and some instinct made Luna turn. A small group of Spectres had slipped around behind them. Just as Luna turned to look, they seemed to merge into one another, sucking all the light from around them. A hand tipped with long claws shot out of the shadows, aimed straight at Kestrel.

There were any number of perfectly logical reasons for Luna's reaction, he would think later. Kestrel and his visor were vital to their escape, so it was imperative that he be protected. Luna was easily the most expendable person in the party right then. Kestrel was holding a defenceless child, and Luna didn't know if Kestrel had the same kind of healing abilities as the Guard.

All perfectly logical, but in the moment, in truth, he didn't think of any of them. He moved on pure instinct, throwing himself into the path of dozens of deadly black shards before he even tried to summon the shield.

And the shield... failed him. He felt it slip out of his grasp with only a flicker of white light... and then the shards hit. Several sliced his face, barely missing his eyes, while others struck him square in the chest and arms as he futilely held out his hands to summon his shield. The pain was intense and so shocking he couldn't even scream. He just heard himself sort of gasp, and then his legs gave out under him. He put his hands out automatically to catch himself, and only realised how badly cut they were when another bolt of pain lanced through him. This time he knew he made a small noise of some kind, but the world had gone so oddly flat and dark that he couldn't really stop himself.

_"Luna!"_ Two voices, both torn with fear; Sol and Kestrel in perfect synchrony.

Then Sol grabbed him, pulling him to his feet and half-carrying him away. Luna could only stagger with her, fighting against unconsciousness. He was dimly aware that they forced open a door, and that beyond was darkness, and the dust and stone smell of the disused subway tunnel. His legs buckled again. Sol crouched next to him, eyes wide at the blood that soaked his tunic.

"Luna. Luna! Can you hear me?"

"Yeah." Speaking was incredibly painful. Distantly, Luna wondered if one of the shards had punctured a lung. "I'm okay."

"You are _not_ okay!" Sol's voice had a note of hysteria. "Oh my god you're bleeding _everywhere_... your _hands_..."

"It's getting better," Luna managed, although he wasn't completely sure that it was. "The healing... thing. It's happening. Are we safe?"

As if to answer the question, he saw the flash and strike of one of Astra's bolts of light.

"There are more Spectres here," Sol said. "But not as many, and they can't copy themselves now we're out of the labyrinth..."

Luna weakly pushed at her shoulder. "So go and set them on fire."

"I can't just leave you--"

"I'll just sit here until I feel better," Luna promised. "Go on."

Sol hesitated for one more second, then said, "Just... just stay there, okay? I'll be right back--"

Then she was gone, and fire sprang up further down the tunnel. Luna leaned his head back against the wall and closed his eyes. It really was getting better, he realised; the immediate, violent pain had already eased into the duller sensation of wounds that were no longer fresh. The fear that had been coiling in his chest relaxed. He was healing. He'd be okay.

He opened his eyes again when he felt someone lean in close to him. Kestrel was kneeling in front of him, face tight with fear as he looked at Luna's blood. Luna glanced sideways and saw that he'd put the shard-bearer down behind a makeshift shelter of stacked wooden sleepers. It didn't look like the little boy was hurt at all.

"It's okay," Luna said. It didn't hurt to speak this time. "I'm healing. It's part of the Guard powers."

"It is?" Kestrel's voice shook. "I didn't know..." He reached out as if to touch Luna's shoulder, but stopped himself. "It must hurt."

Luna nodded. Kestrel reached for his belt, which Luna saw for the first time was some sort of military-style utility belt with pouches and holsters attached. He was half-expecting some sort of high-tech gadget, so when Kestrel fumbled a pack of ordinary painkillers out of one of the pouches, Luna actually laughed. Then he winced. Laughing was not a good idea, apparently. Kestrel handed him a small bottle of water, and he managed to swallow a couple of the pills, though he honestly wasn't sure how effective they'd be in this situation.

"I have bandages as well," Kestrel was saying, the words falling over themselves, and Luna was struck forcefully by how his calm assurance had fallen away. "But I don't know if I have enough--"

"Satoru," Luna said, softly enough to keep his voice from carrying. He caught hold of Kestrel's arm. The cuts on his hand stung. "I'm okay."

Kestrel's eyes flew to his with such worry that Luna's heart skipped unexpectedly. "You are not _'okay'_!"

"I will be," Luna insisted. "Anyway, it was worth it. If those shards had hit you..."

"I'd rather they'd hit me!" Kestrel snapped, sudden anger colouring his concern. "What were you _thinking_?"

All the perfectly logical reasons presented themselves. Luna started to explain, but when he got to the part about him being the most expendable member of the group, something seemed to snap behind Kestrel's eyes.

"Don't ever," he said, grabbing Luna by the shoulders, " _ever_ say that again, Shoichi. Don't you _dare."_

"Wh--"

Kestrel kissed him.

Luna was too stunned to react in the first instant, and then by all rights he ought to have pushed Kestrel away and demanded an explanation...

... but he found himself kissing back, an urgent heat blossoming in his chest as he caught hold of Kestrel's shirt to pull him closer.

Somewhere behind them, Sol shouted something. Kestrel jerked back, the spell broken. They stared at each other for a heartbeat that seemed to last forever. Luna was still scrambling for his shattered thoughts when Kestrel pulled free of the loose grip on his shirt and stumbled to his feet.

"Wait--" Luna managed, but Kestrel moved too quickly. With one last glance in the direction of Sol's voice, he fled into the darkness. "Satoru!"

There was no reply. Luna tried to stand up, but sank back against the wall as pain lanced through his chest again. The last traces of fire were just dying away further down the tunnel. He didn't think Sol could have heard him use Kestrel's real name. Or seen... anything else...

The tug of Sakaki trying to contact him through his crest was a welcome distraction. Luna flipped the medallion open just as he saw Sol and Astra running back towards him in the light of Sol's handheld flame.

"Luna?" Sakaki's voice was anxious. "Can you hear me?"

"Yes," Luna replied, just as the other two reached him. "We're okay, Sakaki."

"Thank the heavens," Sakaki sighed. "I have been trying to contact you for hours..."

"Hours?" Sol dropped down next to Luna. "It can't have been that long-- Sakaki, what time is it?"

"Somewhere past seven in the evening."

Astra gasped. "My parents will be frantic--"

"Did you get the shard?" Sakaki asked.

Luna looked at Sol. She shook her head, looking past him to the unconscious body of the shard-bearer.

"If he took it--" she began fiercely.

"He didn't," Luna said quickly. "He left straight away - he didn't even look for it."

Sol bit her lip. "Then the Archdukes must have it."

"Archdukes?" Sakaki interjected urgently. "You encountered more than one?"

"It's... there's a lot to tell you," Luna said. "But we need to go home first. If any of our parents call the police... the Archdukes could use that to find us."

"Oh hell, I didn't even think of that," muttered Sol. She looked over at Luna with fresh worry. "But you can't just go home covered in blood!"

"Luna is hurt?" Sakaki asked. "How badly?"

"It's not too bad," Luna said, at the same time as Sol said, "It's bad!"

They glared at each other.

"You look like something out of a horror movie!" Sol snapped. "Your face is cut, your gloves are the same colour as mine, and your chest looks like you've been shot or something!"

Luna looked down at his own body. In the light of Sol's flame, he could see that she wasn't exaggerating. He felt a little queasy, and at the same time, glad he hadn't realised just how much blood there was before the wounds started healing.

"If I transform back, that should take care of the blood on my clothes," he said. "I'm not bleeding any more. I'll just need to wash my face and hands..."

"How are you so calm about this?" Sol demanded.

"I don't know!" A tiny bit of Luna's control snapped. "But I'd rather be calm about it than freaking out, okay?"

Sol looked chastened. Astra had moved over to where the shard bearer lay; with some effort, she managed to pick the child up in her arms.

"We need to take him to a hospital," she said quietly.

"Right." Sol got to her feet and held out her hands to Luna. He took them gratefully. Despite his own reassurance, he wasn't sure he could have stood without help. "But I'll do it. Astra, you need to get home as soon as possible. Help Luna, I'll take the shard-bearer to hospital."

"What are you going to tell them?" Astra asked, looking down at the child whose face was far too still even for sleep.

"Nothing," Sol said after a moment. "I'll just give him to the first person I see and run. I can't do anything else."

* * *

Shoichi opened the front door quietly. It was almost nine o'clock. On their way back to the shrine to pick up their school bags, Hikari had insisted on running into a chemist to "get something for your face". Shoichi had been trying to tell her that the cuts were already healed past the point of needing antiseptic cream, but when she came back, she was holding a small makeup compact. The light foundation had done a passable job of hiding the marks, as long as you didn't look too closely. Shoichi was grateful, but simultaneously almost as worried about explaining why he was wearing makeup as trying to find an excuse for the cuts themselves.

He was also bone tired, still in pain, and dreading the lies he'd have to tell. Especially if the school had called...

But when he took off his shoes and called out a hello, there was only silence in response. A quick look into the kitchen showed it was in exactly the state he'd left it that morning. There were three messages on the answerphone his parents still insisted on using: one from the school, one from his mother, one from his father. The first was only a brief report that he'd come home early and would need to bring a note the next day. The other two were nearly identical: a quick, perfunctory statement from each parent that they'd be working late.

Shoichi hesitated for only a moment before deleting all three messages. He knew where his parents kept their signature stamps; he could easily write a note for the school that would pass inspection. He was in the clear, he realised. 'Working late' usually meant he wouldn't be seeing that parent the next morning, even if they didn't stay at the office overnight. They'd never even know he'd been hurt.

It was a huge stroke of luck, really. And yet he found himself suddenly crying, trying to muffle sobs that no-one else was even there to hear. He walked blindly up the stairs and into his bedroom. Homework was out of the question; he was too tired even to eat. He crawled into bed, trying to ignore the tears that slowly made his pillow wet, feeling so alone in the middle of storm of emotion that he didn't even know where to start.


	13. Warp and Weft

_"Lys..."_

Shoichi woke up reluctantly, fragments of the dream vivid in his mind for just a second before he blinked them away. There had been moonlight on a calm sea, the slightest waves making ripples in the silken silver... the air warm and still, someone's beloved laughter and their hand in his...

He rolled over and immediately winced as the half-healed wounds on his chest and arms spread muffled pain across his skin. The dream vanished from his mind, replaced with the memories of yesterday's battle. 

The clock told him he was going to be late for school. Shoichi sat up as carefully as possible, got out of bed, and shuffled over to the bathroom. His face in the mirror was pale. The cuts were still visible, although at this point he could probably pass them off as scratches from... he didn't know... walking into a bramble bush? Maybe?

His still-groggy brain wasn't coming up with much. He looked at himself in the mirror for a while, not really seeing his own reflection. His whole body felt achy and exhausted, like he had flu. Maybe a consequence of over-using the shield? Finally, he shook himself and headed downstairs.

As expected, there were no signs of either of his parents. Shoichi wandered over to the refrigerator, opened it, and stared at the contents until it started beeping at him about the open door. He picked up a round pear from the fruit tray, closed the fridge, sat down at the table, and started carefully slicing the pear into segments.

It was at about that point that he realised he wasn't going to school today. Just... no.

He made a valiant attempt to eat the pear, but he apparently had no appetite even though he'd missed dinner, so he gave up and put the pieces in the fridge for later. Tea, on the other hand, was a heavenly elixir of restoration. By the time he'd drunk his way through most of a pot of his favourite oolong, he felt vaguely human again.

Still not going to school, though. If he was going to fake a note for one day he might as well do it for two, he thought as he rinsed out the teapot and went upstairs to shower. Besides, he had a legitimate reason to stay home sick today, even if it wasn't one he could tell his parents about.

The hot water finished the job the tea had started, waking Shoichi up and washing away some of the whole-body ache. For the first time, he looked at the injuries on his chest and arms. His stomach twisted when he saw how deep some of the gouges were. They'd healed impossibly fast, but there was no way he could pass those off as scratches if anyone saw them. He looked like he'd been in a car accident a few weeks ago and was still recovering. 

Shoichi shuddered as he thought about what they must have looked like right after he was hit by the Spectres' attack. No wonder Sol was freaking out, and Kestrel...

... oh.

_Oh._

He'd forgotten. Or not been thinking about it, perhaps, in the aftermath of the battle. He suddenly felt like he was blushing all over, but that was probably just the hot water.

_Kestrel kissed me._ Satoru _kissed me._

Shoichi reached carefully for the shampoo, still turning the thought around, trying to make it fit. Satoru. _Kissed_ him. And... not in a platonic way. If you even could kiss someone on the mouth in a platonic way. But even if you could, that hadn't been...

... he remembered how it had felt, and now he was _sure_ he was blushing, hot water or no hot water.

Shoichi.... hadn't actually kissed anyone before. So it wasn't like he had any basis for comparison. But the way Satoru had looked at him, right before... like he was breaking into pieces and didn't even know why... like Shoichi was the only person in the world and the only thing that mattered...

Shoichi carefully put the shampoo bottle back, unused, leaned against the wall and let the water spill over his head and body. He realised he was... waiting? For some sort of reaction. Shouldn't he be shocked? Or freaked out? Or just... _surprised_?

But there was just the water hammering on the top of his head and the memory of being kissed, of how he wanted to grab Satoru and pull him closer, how bereft he felt when Satoru pulled away and ran...

... and the girls who had tried to date him, and how weird it had felt, and how he couldn't make himself reciprocate even when he liked them...

... and how relieved he was when Akemi had made it clear she wasn't interested...

... and that guy on the fencing team with the amazing arms, and the boy in his class Shoichi tried not to watch because he had the sweetest smile when he solved a maths problem, and it always distracted Shoichi too much from his own work...

... and sitting with Satoru in the library, their knees not quite touching, stealing little glances when Satoru was absorbed in a book...

Shoichi's heart skipped suddenly as he wondered for the first time if Satoru had been doing the same thing. All at once he had a hundred questions, rising like butterflies out of his stomach and into his throat, but the most pressing was, _What is he thinking right now? Does he think I'm upset?_

A couple of minutes later he was back in his bedroom with a towel around his waist, hunting for his phone. He had messages from classmates wondering where he was, and one each from Akemi and Hikari, both with the subject _ARE YOU OKAY??_

And one from Satoru, no subject. Shoichi clicked on it with his heart in his mouth, and was simultaneously disappointed to see that the text of the email was in fact word-for-word that same question, and touched to know that Satoru was willing to break his silence to check on him.

He wanted to write back and say... something... something like, _I don't mind that you kissed me_. Or, _Actually I think I really like that you kissed me._ Or, _So wait when you asked me to get dinner with you back in school was that supposed to be a_ date _and I didn't even realise??_

And, of course, _Could you please stop with the dark and mysterious and just tell me what is going on with you and the shards?_

What he actually typed was, _I'm fine, everything healed quickly._ And then, after agonising over word choice for so long that his hair was half-dry and sticking out at odd angles, _I hope you're all right too._

After sending it, he went to reply to Akemi and Hikari, copying them both in to save time as he explained that his parents were out, he was feeling much better but staying home from school today, and how did it go for them?

Akemi responded so fast she must have been staring at her phone waiting for him to reply. She was in _so much trouble_. Her mother had thrown a fit, her teachers were ready to put her in detention for life. She hated everything. She was going to run away and live proud and free as a warrior of justice who didn't have to do homework, at least as soon as she wasn't grounded any more.

Hikari chimed in at that point, and it turned out that she'd told her parents she _fell asleep_ , of all things. Shoichi had to admire her poise and quick thinking. Apparently by the time she'd walked him home she'd come up with a whole story about sneaking off at lunch to have a nap and then waking up hours later and panicking when she realised how late it was. Her parents seemed to have accepted it, although they were now worried about her not getting enough sleep, so she probably wasn't going to be able to come to the shrine for a few days.

The new message alert made Shoichi's heart jump, but it was just Akemi replying again, wondering how Hikari came up with that stuff, because when she got home she had _nothing_ and now her mother probably thought she was doing drugs or something. And also there was a history test this morning that she'd forgotten about, _why did her life hate her_.

Shoichi was smiling despite himself. He hated to break the light-hearted feeling of the conversation, but he had to ask: _What about the shard-bearer?_

There was a longer pause this time before Akemi replied. _I took him to the hospital and left him with the first doctor I saw. I couldn't do anything else._

_It was on the news_ , Hikari said, _while I was having breakfast. But I have to put my phone away now or I'll get in trouble. I'll talk to you later._

Shoichi waited a few minutes for any response from Akemi, but there was nothing. And nothing from Satoru. He hoped Akemi hadn't had her phone confiscated. And as for Satoru... his heart jumped again and he sighed, and forced himself to put the phone away and get dressed. 

It was only as he was about to make his bed that he realised the sheets were bloodstained. Not a lot, and the smudges could be passed off as dirt, but it gave him a jolt, reminded him all over again of that awful moment when the Spectres' attack had hit. He quickly bundled up the bedding and his pyjamas, and took it all downstairs to the washing machine. By that point he felt like maybe he could have another go at breakfast, so he put something together while he was waiting for his laptop to boot up.

Hikari was right: the shard-bearer wasn't just on the news, he was the front-page headline pretty much everywhere. Shoichi... didn't want to read it, almost, but he couldn't help himself. The little boy's name was Arakawa Daisuke. He was four and a half years old, and his family lived in Kyoto, not Osaka. He'd been kidnapped after school the day before yesterday, vanishing somehow in a few seconds when no-one was looking, and there had been no witnesses or leads until just over twenty-four hours later, when he was brought into an emergency room in Osaka by a young woman who dumped him and ran.

The medics had been more concerned with treating the child, and no-one had tried to go after her at the time. There was a description attached to the article, but it was so generic that Shoichi couldn't see any similarity to Guardian Sol. The disguise magic really did work, then, although the people in the hospital had noticed something odd about her clothes. One person described her as wearing a firefighter's uniform, which had Shoichi bewildered, until he thought that maybe it was something about all the red and orange, and her gloves... another witness thought she had been wearing martial arts _gi_. No-one could agree on her age, the style or colour of her hair, or her features.

It was weird and creepy to see Akemi in the news, even though no-one else would realise it was her. And seeing the results of the Multitude's actions in black and white was... awful. The Arakawa family were devastated and desperate, appealing for anyone with information to come forward. The doctors were baffled by Daisuke's coma. He had two older sisters who had left him alone in the playground for _just a minute_ while they looked at their friend's new comic book, and one of them had tearfully told a reporter, before her parents chased the press away, that it was _all her fault_...

Shoichi closed the news sites, feeling sick as he remembered the moment when Astra's energy bolt hit the shard and tore it out of the little boy. If only Demogorgon hadn't arrived, if only they'd been able to find the shard and anchor his soul...

Shoichi checked his phone again. Still no answer from Satoru. He supposed he wasn't likely to get one, all things considered. How was Satoru feeling today, he wondered, and the probable answer to that made his heart ache. He thought about writing another message, saying something like, _It wasn't your fault, we had to break the maze, and you thought I'd be able to save him once we had the shard,_ but he couldn't bring himself to do it. It felt presumptuous, to assume he knew what Satoru was thinking...

... except he had no doubt that he _did_ know what Satoru was thinking.

Shoichi was suddenly tired again. After a few more moments staring at the email screen, he shut his phone, went upstairs, made his bed again, and let himself flop down and stop thinking. He left the phone next to his pillow in case it chimed, but he fell asleep so quickly and soundly that he wouldn't have heard it anyway.

He dreamed of the sea again, the moon on the waves, and a fragile sense of both joy and loss that stayed with him long after he'd forgotten the details of the dream.

* * *

By Friday, Akemi was pretty sure this was the worst week of her life. Even worse than when her dad had left, and that was saying something. All her bad test results had finally come to light. Her mother was furious. And Akemi was furious right back, in a raw, painful way that was new to her, because didn't Izumi care about _anything_ except school and tests and Akemi not 'shaming' her? She didn't seem to think there could be any sort of _reason_ for Akemi's behaviour except deliberately trying to spite her, and that _hurt_ , even though the last thing Akemi wanted was to try and explain.

But by far the worst part was that her tentative reconciliation with Hana had been blown to pieces when Akemi refused to explain why she'd run out of school in the middle of the day. And Akemi couldn't even take refuge in anger for that, because she knew Hana was worried about her, and they'd never kept secrets from each other, and she could see the _hurt_ she was causing by shutting herself off...

At least the Multitude had done nothing since the battle in the tunnels. Sakaki had reported that all Neikos's haunts had collapsed. There were no signs of any new ones, and no shard-bearers for them to watch. It was a relief to have time to catch their breath, and at the same time Akemi almost wanted to get back to Celestial Guard business as soon as possible. She felt like she didn't fit inside her life anymore. When they'd decided to meet at the shrine this evening - even though Akemi was still grounded - it had given her something to hold onto, and she'd somehow made it through the day.

As soon as she'd done her part cleaning the classroom, she grabbed her bag and headed out. She'd been having weird dreams, too. Not exactly nightmares - not like the ones she'd had before Sakaki had told her she was Guardian Sol - but dreams that left her restless and upset. She'd dream that she was arguing with someone, getting more and more angry, about duty and fairness and something she was expected to do, like a test but worse, filling her with a heavy weight of dread. It made her even snappier with her mother, which wasn't helping defuse the situation...

Akemi almost crashed into someone on the way out of the classroom, someone who said, "Watch where you're going, space case," with just the right condescending tone to snap her right back into reality with a glare that felt like it ought to burn him up on the spot.

" _What_ did you call me?"

"Whoa," said the boy, smirking and stepping back. She recognised him then, Minako's new boyfriend from the other class. Takaya? No, Tatsuya. "It was just a _joke_..."

"Jokes are _funny_ ," Akemi snapped. "You're just an _ass._ "

"Not my fault you have no sense of humour," Tatsuya retorted with a shrug, and still with that smug look on his face, the one that said he thought he was such hot stuff. "Are you gonna move or not?"

"How about you _make me_ ," Akemi snarled, and had the satisfaction of seeing his expression falter, just for a second, as he seemed to realise that she was _way_ angrier than he'd thought.

Then Minako was at her side, grabbing her elbow.

"Akemi, what are you _doing_?" she hissed. "Knock it off!"

"You have terrible taste in boyfriends," Akemi snapped back, and immediately felt the bubble of self-righteous anger burst when she saw the look on Minako's face. She scowled at both of them to cover her own dismay, and stormed off, pretending not to hear Tatsuya's, "Wow, what's _her_ problem?" or Minako's clearly upset response.

Akemi fumed all the way home, especially when she had to walk past the shrine instead of going into it. She was still grounded, but her mother had to work an extra shift today. Izumi had made it clear that Akemi was to come directly home from school and that she would be checking in, but Akemi already had plans to deal with that. She dumped her school bag in her bedroom and took a series of photos of herself - not trying to hide her sour expression - in the kitchen and sitting room. She'd send them to Izumi one by one through the evening, and as long as she was back home before her mother, it should be enough to make it look like she'd stayed put.

It had been Hikari's idea. Akemi wished she was as quick-thinking when it came to excuses. She still squirmed when she thought about how she'd fumbled for words and then sunk into silence in the face of Izumi's anger.

She transformed before she left the apartment - also Hikari's suggestion, to make sure no-one recognised her and mentioned it to her mother - and headed to the shrine. It was getting really hot now, as summer crept into full swing. The air was sticky and heavy, and although there were no clouds in the sky, it was beginning to look hazy with the humidity that would soon settle in for months. Akemi was glad to get under the shade of the trees in the shrine.

She was even more glad when she reached the clearing and saw the icebox with its bottles of soft drinks. Shoichi and Hikari were already sitting in the shade drinking different kinds of tea, and Shoichi didn't even ask, as she flopped down next to them, just handed her a bottle of her favourite soda with a smile.

"Thanks," Akemi said with feeling. "Hi, Sakaki."

"Good evening, Sol."

Akemi let her Guardian uniform fade back into her school clothes, and gulped the soda eagerly. For the first time in a week she felt herself relax. The clearing was quiet and peaceful, the leaf-dappled shade taking the edge off the heat. Neither Hikari nor Shoichi was the type to bombard her with questions. At some point the tent behind them had acquired a small but sturdy table, more cushions, some battery powered lamps, a small pile of manga, and a stash of paper fans. It almost felt like coming home, and more real and right than anything else had this week.

"I brought dinner," said Shoichi after a moment, reaching into the ice-box and pulling out a plastic bag with three bento boxes in it. "Not very exciting, I'm afraid."

"You are an angel in human form," Akemi said with utter seriousness. Despite Shoichi's description, the bento boxes were much fancier than anything she'd get from a convenience store, and Akemi started on hers hungrily. "How are you feeling?"

"Fine. Not even scratches left."

Akemi looked at Hikari.

"My parents have asked me how I slept every morning this week," Hikari said ruefully, reaching for her own bento, "but they seem to be getting over it."

Akemi made a rueful noise. "Lucky you. Lucky _Shoichi_ , didn't have to explain anything. Can I trade with you?"

Shoichi ducked his head, apparently occupied with separating his chopsticks. "I think they might notice _that_ ," he said after a moment, quietly. "Anyway," he went on before Akemi could say anything else, "I'm glad I didn't have to try and convince them I got in a fight at school or something."

Akemi laughed incredulously. "A _fight_? You?"

"I couldn't think of anything else," Shoichi said with a sheepish smile. "I guess I need to work on my excuses."

"Yeah, so do all of us," Akemi said. She tilted her head back to look at the branches over their head. "Hey, Sakaki, you don't have a magic spell for that, do you?"

She'd only meant it as a joke, but there was along pause before Sakaki replied, "I do not, but... Astra does have something of the sort."

Everyone stopped eating to stare at each other, then at Hikari, who went red and put down her bento.

"What do you mean?" Shoichi said finally.

Sakaki sighed, leaves rustling in a non-existent breeze.

"Astra's powers concern the mind, just as yours concern the soul, Luna," she said. "She is capable of crafting a spell known as an 'illusion seed' to influence the minds of others. The seeds can change what people see, and remember... when you use an illusion seed, you can make them believe what you wish them to believe."

There was a dead silence.

"That sounds really creepy," Hikari said flatly.

"The seeds have no power to coerce," Sakaki went on quickly, almost apologetically. "They cannot change anyone's mind by force. But often in the fight against the Multitude, those who do not understand prefer to find some other explanation for what is happening. They will accept the illusion seed, and be happier for it than if they remembered the truth."

"So could I... you're saying I could make my mom forget all about the last week?" Akemi asked slowly.

"No," said Sakaki. "You cannot undo what has been done. But if you were forced to leave your school again, you could set a seed to blossom in the minds of your classmates and teachers, and they would believe you had never left. Or if someone witnesses the Spectres, as becomes ever more likely as they grow in power, you could convince them there was some other explanation for what had occurred..."

"Gas leaks and weather balloons," Hikari murmured. Akemi shot her a confused look. "Things that are easier to believe," Hikari explained. "But it still seems... wrong."

"No-one will accept the illusion if they do not wish to," Sakaki said. "Some will reject it. Some prefer the truth. But most... do not." Then, gently, she asked, "What did you tell your friend, Astra?"

Hikari blinked. "What do you mean?"

"Your friend, the shard-bearer who was attacked before you awakened. Did you tell him about the Spectres and the Guard?"

"No... I.... I said we were mugged...."

"And he believed you."

Hikari had gone pale. "Yes. Are you saying I-- I used my powers--"

"No," Sakaki said, quickly and with certainty. "No, you cannot use the seeds without intending to. It requires concentration to build the illusion. But your friend accepted the lie even without the seed, did he not? He preferred to believe it. That is how the seeds function. They offer an alternative... a more palatable way to see the world for those who choose it."

There was a long silence. Akemi bit her lip. Hikari wasn't wrong, it was _definitely_ creepy. But when she thought about the week she'd had...

"How would we use them?" she asked.

Again Sakaki hesitated as if she were reluctant to answer. "Astra can create the seeds and give them to you," she said at length. "You can keep them in your medallions. If you need to leave your school or your homes, you can whisper to the seed what you need the people around you to believe, and let it take root. Just be warned that it can be defied, by those with the will to accept the harder truth."

"Why didn't you tell us about this before?" Shoichi asked, a sharpness in his voice that had Akemi looking at him in confusion. "If we'd known--"

"Because I did not want you to have to use them," Sakaki said, and the sadness in the admission stopped Shoichi mid-sentence. "It is hard enough to hide your truths from the ones you love, let alone deceive them in this way. I hoped that in this time and place you would not need them, but... it has become clear that you will be obstructed even by those who mean well."

"It still feels wrong," Hikari said very quietly after a moment, hanging her head. "But... if it means my parents don't worry about me..." She straighted, a determined expression on her face. "How do I make the seeds?"

"That I cannot tell you," Sakaki answered regretfully. "Like the soul anchor, they are a power I do not have. In the past... I have seen Guardian Astra cup her hands and look into them, and a point of light has appeared. She described it as... pulling threads together with her eyes to weave on an invisible loom."

Hikari looked so bewildered by the analogy that Akemi started laughing despite herself.

"Sakaki's instructions are the best instructions," she said, glancing at Shoichi, who also finally cracked a smile.

"It will come to you," Sakaki said. "In the meantime we must hope that Ker does not move too swiftly. I sense the faint traces of two more shard-bearers in the city, but they are not yet bright enough for me to track them. So far Ker does not seem to favour Neikos's style of establishing haunts."

"That's good," Akemi said.

"Maybe, maybe not. If it means she intends to attack directly instead..."

Akemi bit her lip and glanced at Hikari, but didn't say anything about the illusion seeds. Hikari looked worried enough without pointing out how urgently they might turn out to need the things.

"So what do we do?" Shoichi asked, looking at Akemi. It took her a moment to realise that he was _asking_ her directly, not just throwing the question out at random. "If there aren't any haunts to clear, we don't know where the next shard-bearers are, and we don't know what Ker's going to do..."

"We wait," Akemi said, trying to make it sound like a choice. And then, as an idea came to fruition, "And we go to Kyoto."

The other two stared at her.

"The little boy was from Kyoto, and we think the serial killer is an Archduke," Akemi said. "Sakaki can't sense what's happening out there. We need to check what's going on. There could be more haunts, or more shard-bearers."

"By that logic we'd need to go to every city in the country," Shoichi objected. "Tokyo, for a start..."

"The shard-bearers will not be so far afield," Sakaki said quietly. "Those who are not in Osaka will be nearby."

"And besides, we _know_ something's happening in Kyoto," Akemi went on. "So that's where we start."

After a moment of hesitation, Shoichi nodded. He seemed to debate with himself before speaking again.

"I've been thinking about the shard-bearers who've already lost their souls," he said. "We can't help the ones whose shards have been taken by the Multitude, but... maybe we could make some sort of deal with Kestrel to retrieve the souls from the shards he has?"

"You must do no such thing," Sakaki said sharply before Akemi could reply. "He is not to be trusted and there can be no bargaining with him. If you have the opportunity, you must take the shards he holds. Then we will be able to return the souls."

Shoichi's eyes narrowed. "Why? He's not part of the Multitude and he doesn't want to hurt the shard-bearers..."

"If he has said he does not serve the Multitude, it is a lie," Sakaki replied. "I doubt he cares about the bearers one way or another." And then, as Shoichi started to retort, clearly angry, "You must _listen_ to me in this, Luna! You most of all! Do _not_ let him convince you he is not a threat - no matter what he claims, he is not a friend of the Guard--"

"He helped us escape," Hikari said. "He carried the little boy out of the labyrinth."

"But he never said he was our friend," Akemi pointed out. "Only that he would never help the Multitude."

"And in that, he lied," Sakaki said firmly.

The strength of Sakaki's conviction shook her, but so did Shoichi's reaction to it. He'd gone very still and very pale all of a sudden. What on _earth_ was going on? If Sakaki said Kestrel was an enemy, then Kestrel was clearly an enemy...

.... and yet, Akemi remembered: _on that I swear my soul._

She'd believed him absolutely in that moment.

"Well, anyway--" she began.

"What do you mean," Shoichi interrupted, staring at Sakaki with a tense, almost frightened expression, "me 'most of all'?"

Akemi blinked. She hadn't even registered that but... it was certainly an odd thing for Sakaki to say.

"I...." And Sakaki seemed suddenly very wary, very careful, as she went on, "I mean that you are... inclined to see the best in people. It speaks well of you, but it also puts you in danger... your generosity may be misplaced, your trust betrayed. That is all I meant."

There was a moment of silence. Shoichi was still looking at Sakaki, that tense expression still on his face. Hikari glanced at him, then Akemi, clearly anxious. And Akemi thought about the way Sakaki had hidden things from them, kept secrets even as she instructed them on their Guardian duties, and something in her heart went a little cold.

_I don't believe her,_ she realised. _I don't believe that's what she meant at all._

"So Shoichi's too nice," she said aloud - cheerful, breezy, teasing. "We knew _that_. Hey that reminds me, what do I owe you for the bento?"

Shoichi's eyes went to her, confused but clearly willing to be distracted. "You don't need to pay me back--"

"See?" Akemi scooted closer to prod him an unused set of chopsticks. " _Too nice_. Fine, I'll buy next time."

"I can take a turn too," Hikari piped up. "There's a really nice place by my school."

"And how much furniture are you planning to buy, anyway?" Akemi asked, looking at the table. "Not that I'm complaining, but we could chip in--"

"It's really okay," Shoichi protested, "my parents give me a big allowance, and anyway it's my birthday soon, so I'll get money then, I might as well use it--"

"Wait, it's your birthday?" Akemi prodded him again, already feeling the mood in the clearing relax. "When?"

"Uh... week after next."

" _Seriously?_ When were you going to mention that?"

Shoichi shrugged, embarrassed. "It's not a big deal, I don't usually--"

"Don't you normally have a party?"

Shoichi shook his head. Akemi tried and failed to keep her dismay off her face.

"Well, you're having one _this_ year--" she began, only to be interrupted, to her surprise, by Hikari.

"Do you _want_ a party?" she asked, eyes on Shoichi's face. "You don't have to."

Shoichi hesitated, looked at both of them, and then suddenly smiled.

"Yes," he said. "That would be nice." And then just as Akemi was opening her mouth, "But _not_ karaoke, okay?"

"... spoilsport," Akemi muttered.

"And... just us." Shoichi looked down at his bento as if only just remembering that it existed. "Not lots of people."

Akemi felt like pointing out that a party usually implied more than three people, but restrained herself. Shoichi looked suddenly kind of... fragile.

"I usually do something with my parents," he said suddenly, like it was a confession. "But they... were too busy last year. Um, and they haven't said anything this year, and it seems like they're busy again right now. So. That's why I don't have plans."

Akemi opened her mouth, but had to shut it again when she realised she had no idea what to say. How could Shoichi's parents be _too busy_ for his _birthday_?

"What do you want to do?" Hikari asked gently.

"I really don't know." Shoichi looked sheepish. "What would you do?"

"Karaoke," Akemi said. Shoichi shot her a mock-exasperated look. "Hey, you asked."

"I went to the aquarium last year," Hikari said. She smiled at Shoichi. "Would you like that?"

Shoichi's face lit up. "I haven't been there since I was little! That would be amazing."

"Then that's a plan!" Akemi said cheerfully. After a moment, her smile faded a little and she sighed. "Well, assuming it's still quiet then. And we should go to Kyoto first."

"We could always do that instead of the aquarium--" Shoichi started.

Akemi glared at him. "We are _not_ celebrating your birthday by fighting Spectres, okay?"

... which, in hindsight, was probably a stupid thing to promise, but she wouldn't realise that until later on. For now, it at least got a laugh out of Shoichi, and the rest of the evening was spent planning the aquarium trip. And if Shoichi went quiet and distant every so often, and Hikari occasionally lost the thread of the conversation and looked at her hands like she was trying to imagine a bright light cupped in them, well, Akemi would take that for now.

* * *

Hikari spent the first few minutes of the walk back to the station trying to remember everything she knew about looms, which... wasn't a lot. You used them to make tapestries, didn't you? In the end she asked Shoichi, who shook his head.

"I have no idea," he said. "It's something about putting the threads over and under each other, or... looping them?" He laughed, pulling a face. "Sorry. I'm about as much help as Sakaki. If it's any comfort she wasn't very clear about the soul anchor either."

"How did you figure that out in the end?"

"I..." Shoichi looked slightly abashed. "Um, I'm not sure how much credit I can take for it. I sort of... put the shard under my pillow and... well, I had this weird dream and... after that I kind of knew how to do it?"

Hikari turned an incredulous look on him. Shoichi blushed.

"Okay," Hikari said. "But I don't have anything to put under my pillow."

"Maybe your Guardian crest?"

"I do that anyway." It was Hikari's turn to blush. "Just to keep it safe, you know." After a moment, she asked, "What was the dream about?"

"Oh, it was..." Shoichi fiddled with the strap of his bag, seeming lost in his own thoughts for a moment. "Most of it was... just dream stuff," he said finally. "But there was a labyrinth, and I was walking along it to... focus my mind, or something--"

Hikari's breath caught. "A labyrinth? Like-- like the one in the tunnels?"

"What?" Shocihi focused on her again, blinked. "Oh, no. Not like that at all. It was... drawn on the ground. Just lines."

They'd reached the station by this point, and since they'd both be going in different directions, they paused outside to keep talking.

"So you had to find your way through it?" Hikari asked.

"No..." Shoichi leaned against the station wall, eyes distant, a little frown on his face. It made Hikari smile. He looked so super-serious that she wanted to tickle him or something. "There was only one path. You couldn't get lost. The point wasn't to find your way, just to... keep walking and focus on the path, until you reached the centre. It was a kind of meditation, I think."

"I thought the whole point of a maze was to have lots of different paths, and get lost."

Shoichi shrugged. "I don't know. That's just what I remember. It was a circle, kind of. It was in something like a shrine. Like it was really important." He shook himself out of his reverie. "Anyway... when I used the soul anchor for the first time, I tried to... walk through the labyrinth again. In my head. And it worked."

Hikari bit her lip. "I feel like... I don't want anything to do with mazes. Not after..."

She trailed off, but Shoichi shot her a sympathetic look.

"I don't know how to explain it, but it was just different," he said.

After that they went their separate ways. Hikari spent the journey home lost in thought. She used to like mazes, she remembered suddenly, the kind you found in a colouring book, where you had to trace the right path with a pencil. But that didn't sound like what Shoichi had described. And no matter how she tried, she kept thinking of those creepy, narrow tunnels with the little boy's crying echoing through them... and then the distorted, endless world of the maze that had followed... those staring people, and the sense of sinking deeper the more she struggled...

She shuddered. When she got home, it was good to put thoughts of mazes and looms and illusion seeds out of her head for a while and do her homework, but she kept coming back to what Shoichi had said. _Like a circle... only one path..._

Finally she opened her laptop and just typed "maze" into the search engine. Dozens of children's puzzles appeared, along with some more complex drawings, and some hedge mazes and so on. None of them seemed right, although they were reassuringly mundane, and went some way towards erasing the creepy feeling she had now about the word.

After a moment, she went back to the search page and tried "labyrinth" instead. A lot of the results were the same, but her eyes were immediately caught by the one that was different. _Like a circle._ It was almost a spiral, in fact, one path looping around itself until it reached the centre. Hikari clicked on that result and found herself on a page about ancient mythology. She skimmed most of the information, focusing on the part that confirmed Shoichi's guess that it was a kind of meditation.

Back to the search page. This time she tried "labyrinth meditation". And suddenly the results were very different. No more kids' puzzles or hedge mazes. She found a site dedicated to the history of the labyrinth, another with instructions on how to walk and meditate, yet another with ideas for how to improvise if you didn't happen to have access to a large ancient pattern in the floor...

Hikari forgot about homework. She was even fascinated enough to stop shivering every time she saw the word "labyrinth". And the more she read, the more some sort of awareness was coalescing in the back of her mind. _Like weaving with your eyes on an invisible loom..._

"I think I can do this," she said out loud. Her hand went unconsciously to the crest around her neck. "I can do this."

* * *

When he got home, the first thing Shoichi did was take the medallion from around his neck. He turned it over in his hands, tracing the edge of the crescent moon set in blue glass, seeing the occasional flash of light from the mirror inside it. Then he put it down on his desk, carefully, and sat on the bed, and looked at it.

Was Sakaki spying on him? Did she know about the times he'd talked to Satoru? Shoichi couldn't think of any other reason for that ever-so-specific warning about Kestrel. And yet there'd been no indication that she was aware of other details of their lives, and there had been times she'd needed to reach them and been unable to do so. When she contacted them after a battle she was always impatient and concerned, not like someone who already knew what had happened.

But what else could she have meant? That excuse about 'seeing the best in people' didn't ring true. She'd faltered, as if she'd said too much, and tried to cover it up.

If she did know about Satoru, why hadn't she sent them to find stake out his university and take the shards? And if she'd been caught out earlier, why hadn't she turned it around by telling the others that Shoichi had been hiding things from them?

His stomach twisted painfully at the thought of that conversation, guilt and worry and - anger, he had to admit - all coming to roost somewhere in his chest. Anger, because everything Sakaki said about Kestrel just _couldn't_ apply to Satoru. He couldn't believe it, not for a second. Not Satoru. And how did Sakaki even know anything about him? Had they run into each other in the years since Satoru had left school? Shoichi wanted to start asking questions and refuse to stop until he got an answer, but...

... but doing that would give himself away, and maybe give Satoru away as well, and he... he couldn't risk it. He couldn't reconcile what Sakaki said about Kestrel with what he knew about Satoru... or even with what he'd seen, with his own eyes, the way Satoru obviously struggled with whatever he was supposed to be doing, the way he'd given up his own dreams in service to whoever or whatever had told him to become Kestrel...

Shoichi bit his lip, remembering the moment he'd realised why Satoru hadn't taken up his place at Tokyo. And remembering the kiss again, and the way Satoru had clung to him, just for a second...

He closed his eyes. Was Sakaki spying on him? He... didn't think so. But he had to be careful. He didn't want to keep secrets from Akemi and Hikari, but he couldn't betray Satoru. He just _couldn't_.

After a moment he opened one of the desk drawers and put the crest inside before shutting it. It felt a little less like it was watching him then. Then he checked his phone, just in case Satoru had suddenly decided to reply to his email from four days ago. Nothing.

With a groan, Shoichi put his head in his arms on the desk, letting the phone drop with a thud. He was going around in circles. He didn't know what to do, and there was no-one he could ask. Maybe he needed to try coming clean with Akemi, somewhere away from the shrine, maybe he could talk her into giving Satoru the benefit of the doubt...

His phone chimed. He hesitated before picking it up, knowing that the spike of hope he felt was about to be crushed. Then he saw Satoru's name on the lock screen, and almost dropped the phone a second time as he fumbled to open the message. Then his heart seemed to stop.

_Don't go to Kyoto,_ read the email. _They are strong there. Stay away._

* * *

That night, though they didn't know it, they all had the same dream.

Shoichi found himself standing at the top of a tower, looking out over the night sea. The moon and stars were hidden; dark clouds boiled over the horizon, illuminated only by the occasional flash of distant lightning. The wind picked up and blew his hair back from his face, and he felt the first drop of rain on his cheek. He was tense and poised as if to fight or run, but he was frozen in place, waiting for some signal...

Out on the horizon, a red flare shot up as if to pierce the clouds. Throughout the city spread behind him, bells began to toll, frantic, warning. Like a coiled spring releasing, he turned and ran down the stairs.

Akemi was in the Queen's hall, sitting on the steps beneath the throne, counting seconds between the thunder. Every crash sent a shiver between her shoulder blades, the horror of a nightmare and the dread of a coming threat, and her eyes burned with tears that had been recently shed but were now dried up. When she heard the bells, she raised her head slowly, listening to the cries of fear and panic that began to echo through the palace halls.

Then she took hold of the sword that lay on the steps beside her, slowly rose to her feet, walked away from the throne. The double doors ahead of her swung open without being touched.

Hikari had been walking the labyrinth for hours, or days, or years, she thought, when she saw the first flash of lightning reflected in the gleaming silver line at her feet. She raised her eyes to the stars that had guided her until now, but the stars were gone, and there was only blackness above her. A sudden wind came rushing through the colonnade surrounding the labyrinth, bent the olive trees even further into their twisted dance, bringing with it the smell of the sea and a terror that stopped her in her tracks.

Before the first bell sounded she had already abandoned the path and rushed to the side of the courtyard that overlooked the docks. A ship was driving hard towards the shore, sails tattered and torn, no flag at its mast, and she saw the darkness it brought with it, and could not move until all at once she found herself running.

... and Satoru stood before the mirror, saw his own reflection turn away from him in scorn, and woke, alone in his room in Osaka, with tears running down his face, and a name on his lips that he couldn't remember.


End file.
